MCGRAW DRAWS ROARS AT SHOW ME CENTER (CONCERT REVIEW)

What would they say at the Grand Ole Opry?

Country star Tim McGraw wowed an audience of 5,003 people at the Show Me Center Friday night with a show indistinguishable from a rock 'n' roll extravaganza: Rising stages, colored lights, deafening bass and a bit of posing by the goateed star.

Judging by the young girls' screams and the number of people who remained standing throughout the entire show -- a rarity in country music -- that's what everyone there had come to see.

McGraw has compared his show to a roller coaster ride, and it was that. After waiting 45 minutes while roadies set up the stage between acts, the audience was on their feet when McGraw suddenly appeared on a rising stage at the back of the Show Me Center floor.

The first notes of his hit "Indian Outlaw" were met with the kind of roar not heard in the Show Me Center since the basketball Indians won the championships.

An athletic physique shown off with tight clothing is part of McGraw's appeal to some fans, no doubt. A few times, the videographer beaming images to dual screens even framed the singer's butt as he strode the stage. It's probably a good thing Roy Acuff isn't around to see that.

Others are enamored of McGraw's lyrics, which in the best tradition of country music often tell a story. Fans finished lines for him during the sentimental "Don't Take the Girl," and helped him sing much of another hit, "Refried Dreams."

McGraw's is not the old country music of drinking away your sorrows in honky-tonks. This is country music that's happy to be alive.

Whether the fault of the sound system or Show Me Center acoustics, McGraw's words often got lost in the din. It sometimes was difficult to understand what he was saying, even when his six-piece band wasn't playing.

The band may have been good. It was difficult to tell.

Maybe it didn't matter. Another roar arose when Faith Hill, McGraw's wife, appeared on stage to sing their duet "It's Your Love." Their country love story is another source of the singer's popularity.

McGraw doesn't possess one of country music's more remarkable voices, but he's a decent guy who married the woman of his dreams and seems to be living happily ever after. Rose-colored love is in many of his songs, especially the new single "Everywhere," which had girls cheering every time he spoke the word.

Before the star came on stage, the audience was entertained by the Clark Family Experience and Sons of the Desert. The Clark Family Experience substituted for Mindy McCready, who couldn't appear because of acute tonsillitis. The six teen-aged brothers displayed amazing talents on their instruments in performing a rollicking type of music often dubbed "newgrass."

At 13, the youngest is a swift dobro player, and the fiddle and mandolin players showed some virtuosity as well. Though they wore suits, the band is still unpolished and just needs some seasoning before they become well known.

Sons of the Desert played a highly entertaining set of rock-laced country music that included John Mellencamp's "Little Pink Houses" and the band's own Top 10 hit "Whatever Comes First."