Rascal Flatts makes a ‘Name That Tune’ game of own catalog

"That's bullcrap!"

This is not a quote from a critic from back in the day, when Rascal Flatts was briefly the group they loved to hate and call a "boy band" and all that.

No, it was Jay DeMarcus on Wednesday night, the first of the trio's nine-show run at the Hard Rock Hotel. The bass-and-keyboard third of the trio was full of mock indignation after playing the piano intro to Journey's "Faithfully."

"Ya'll shouted louder for that song than any song we've done so far," he complained in fun.

Then he played the intro to "Don't Stop Believin'" and had to chastise once again. "See, that's bullcrap too ... I wish we had a song that started with a piano."

That was a setup for "Bless the Broken Road," which sounded enough like those Journey power ballads even before lead singer Gary LeVox tagged it with a quote from "Open Arms."

If "mash-up" isn't the right word, it was certainly "rearrangment" night at the Hard Rock Hotel. Rascal Flatts used its second annual residency at The Joint to put even more distance from its nominal connection to yesterday's country music.

The Nashville trio blasted through hit after hit until the first third of its show peaked with its signature cover of "Life Is a Highway." They were only a half-hour in, so what would come next?

An odd but fun game. You know those radio jingles that can't get the rights to a hit song so they commission a sound-a-like, changing the chords just enough not to get sued? The Rascals were more forthright about their "Name That Tune" game: starting with Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" but switching into their own hit "Stand" before kicking back over to an official shot of Phil.

Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" set up "Love You Out Loud," and Guns N Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine" found its way into "Here's to You."

What was all this about? I can only figure that 10 years ago, Rascal Flatts was at the forefront of merging country and pop. But now Taylor Swift and Florida Georgia Line have rearranged the game board, drawing new rules for pop songs that still qualify for country airplay, so the Flatts seem to be moving their pieces over by declaring their catalog up for renegotiation.

Whatever they are up to, it was a fun change of pace for a Las Vegas run, rather than just doing an encore of last summer's "Riot" tour. Their nice-guy qualities radiate from the stage, and Las Vegas seems to hold a solid, safe future for them whether it's as a "current" or "legacy" act.

Last year, the three official Rascals fronted a backline of four musicians and three female backup singers. The sound was so dense it was sometimes hard to make out the lyrics.

This time, LeVox teased some changes in an advance interview with the R-J's Dave Herrera: "No one's ever seen us like this before ... . There's only two other people (but) the two sound like 10."

The two turn out to be a conventional kit drummer, Jim Riley, and a utility guy, Casey Brown, on drums, keyboards and sampler, providing a percolating synthesized underscore to "What Hurts the Most." Flatts guitarist Joe Don Rooney got in on the act with an extended funky talk-box intro to "Me and My Gang."

But if you were looking for a banjo in the song of that name, you had to settle for a brief turn on an electric one.

Oh well, the Flatts were never to be mistaken for country purists. Is this Hard Rock stint just a fun, off-tour lark for fans or a declaration of new intents? Time will tell.

Let's just hope that by blending their own catalog with classics of proven longevity, they can figure out the difference between a formula radio hit such as "My Wish" and those songs by Collins and Journey, which somehow live on past the point when the Next Big Thing bumped them from Top 40 radio.

— Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.