OTTAWA - You didn't have to be a Kenny Chesney fan, or even like country music much to have had a kick-up-yer-heels good time at his Sun City Carnival gig last night at Scotiabank Place.

All you really needed was to be in the mood to party hard, as country's version of Jimmy Buffett threw a beach party for 14,000 fun-loving fans.

Before the show even began, I was wishing I had the concession on cowboy hats. The kind Pamela Anderson wears, curled up on the sides. It seemed like almost everyone was wearing one.

And if cowboy hats were already taken, I would have happily settled for even one beer stand because in all my years of attending shows at the bunker in Kanata, I've never seen so many people drinking a cool one.

Opening the show with Out Last Night, Chesney made one of the more memorable entrances Scotiabank's seen, rappelling from the end of the rink right up to his spot on the stage on a chair suspended 50 feet over the floor.

Certainly not your typical country concert, Chesney's live show was an event more like a Pink Floyd or Rolling Stones gig for its state-of-the-art showmanship and musical gusto. The truth is that Chesney's music is about as country as Neil Diamond. Oh sure, there's a twang to his vocals, but live, this guy rocks as hard as Van Halen.

With 17 musicians onstage, including fiddle, banjo, two drummers and a four-piece brass section, Chesney ramped up the energy with Beer in Mexico (I detect a pattern here), No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem along with I Go Back, Out Last Night, Big Star and a singalong on Anything But Mine.

The biggest cheer of the night came during Back Where I Come From accompanied by video of Ottawa and the Parliament Buildings.

Singalongs, of which there were many including There Goes My Life, droned on well past the point of being redundant. But with around 22 songs over nearly two hours, Chesney kept the show rolling.

Before wrapping up, Chesney returned to his island roots with a Caribbean take Everyone Wants To Go To Heaven and When the Sun Goes Down and encored with She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy.

In the end, Chesney threw a whaling good party, and even brought his own music.

Miranda Lambert, who opened for Chesney, showed that she has what it takes to convert rock critics into country fans. The Texas native, who was a finalist in 2003's Nashville Star, was a huge hit with the early arrivers, performing a high-energy set full of covers of rock classics, including Rod Stewart's Stay With Me and Joan Jett's I Love Rock & Roll.

Her feisty Texas personality was on full display as she joked about being a "redneck chick," singing Crazy Ex-Girlfriend while using a shotgun as a mic-stand.

Nice.