BROOKS & DUNN DRAW A CROWD (CONCERT REVIEW)

Brooks & Dunn, David Ball and the Tractors honky-tonked, roadhoused and rocked the world at the sold-out Show Me Center Friday night.

A youthful audience of 6,149 attended the 3 1/2-hour concert.

Headliners Brooks & Dunn played on a stunning set of glimmering risers festooned with movable faux longhorn skulls and mesas, all set off by purple, turquoise and rose lighting that changed the mood with practically all 18 songs they performed.

The duo grabbed the brass ring four years ago with "Boot Scootin' Boogie" after struggling separately to survive in the music business for many years. At first, Dunn's classic voice and lanky good looks leave you wondering why he was unsuccessful until Brooks came along.

But then you see Dunn's reserve and slight uncomfortableness as an entertainer contrasted with Brooks, who roams the stage, dancing and looking for some new pose to strike, another hand to shake. And he can sing.

Together, they work.

Brooks & Dunn presented a non-stop outpouring of their co-written hits, starting with the current chart-climber, "Little Miss Honky Tonk" and ending with the boot scootin' number.

In the middle, Brooks sang a sit-down rendition of a new ballad, "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone." It's a hit all the way.

Brooks sang the Eagles' "The Best of My Love" in a spray of purple pinwheeling spotlights.

Brooks & Dunn's music is a bit derivative to my ear -- "Lost and Found" could be a Jimmy Buffett song, "Rock My World" blatantly lifts a Credence Clearwater Revival lick.

Even the lovely "Neon Moon," which Dunn sang with stoic assurance, owes something to the writer of "Third-Rate Romance."

But entertaining they were. Brooks & Dunn didn't come all this way not to give us what we want.

David Ball, a previously unannounced member of the bill, is a pure country tenor from the George Strait school. His band adheres to only two rules, he said: "No drinkin' on the gospel numbers. And the other rule is, No gospel numbers." Then they broke into Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel."

Ball gave the honky-tonkers in the audience what they came for -- a few smooth two-steppers and some songs that brought up that ache you thought was gone.

"When the Thought of You Catches Up with Me," one of his hits, is a classic of the latter genre.

The Tractors, a new band composed of veteran rock 'n' roll sidemen, added tenor and baritone saxes to the requisite pedal steel and fiddle mix and produced bottom-heavy, rollicking roadhouse music.

Their sound combines western swing and Louisiana swampiness.

The place exploded with the first notes of their chugging hit, "Baby Likes to Rock It."