Little Big Town and Sugarland at TD Garden, Oct. 31, 2024

Concert Reviews

The bands paired up to take the house down on their Take Me Home Tour Thursday night.

Kimberly Schlapman and Jennifer Nettles of Little Big Town perform onstage during the 2024 CMT Music Awards in Austin, Texas. The band hit TD Garden Thursday night with Sugarland. Hubert Vestil/Getty Images

Little Big Town with Sugarland and The Castellows, at TD Garden, Oct. 31, 2024

There are people who believe that country music only thrives south of the Mason Dixon Line. Those people may not realize that Kenny Chesney’s “No Shoes Nation” was born in Gillette Stadium in 2012, or that award-winning country music star Jo Dee Messina is from Framingham. And they certainly weren’t at TD Garden Thursday for Little Big Town’s “Take Me Home Tour,” or they’d know better.

Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook rose onto the stage under white globe lights, dressed mostly in black with the exception of Schlapman, who was body-suited in what looked like a form-fitting Kandinsky painting.

Fairchild promised the packed house they would play all the songs they liked and some deep cuts they didn’t even know they liked — and they didn’t disappoint.

With their Boston date falling on Halloween, Fairchild called out some costumed audience members and drew some laughs when she apologized for coming “as a plain old Karen.”

Given the holiday, it seemed appropriate that they started out with “Bones” before swinging easily into the always-a-crowd-pleaser “Little White Church,” the 2010 hit that showcases a couple of things LBT does best.

Little Big Town, or LBT to those in the know, are crazy unique in large part due to their four-part harmonies that would never, ever be confused for a barbershop quartet. Interestingly, they also do not feature a definitive lead vocalist; rather, their songs might be led by any one of the four, like Schlapman’s “Sober,” or “Bring it on Home,” which features Sweet. Or in some cases there are varying combinations, or all of them, like “Beer, Wine, Whiskey,” which, seriously, is just so. much. fun. (Not unlike “Pontoon” and “Day Drinking,” which might suggest a theme.)

They also have the ability to switch easily between hard-rocking country songs, like “Looking for a Reason” off their 2010 album “The Reason Why,” and quieter, more emotional songs, like Fairchild’s “Better Man” from their 2017 album “The Breaker.”

And it’s fun to watch Sweet and Westbrook rock out with the band’s killer guitarist Evan Weatheford and bass player John Thomasson. Likewise when Fairchild and Schlapman join forces on lyrics or are just prowling the stage — but they are truly at their finest when they are still.

When it was just the four of them, on stools center stage, above the fray, singing with those harmonies — it was magic. A cover of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” brought audible gasps from the audience, and it doesn’t get any better than “Silver and Gold,” which came with a video montage of their 25-year-plus career. Later they did a kick-ass cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” before slipping into “Next to You.”

But if you think four-part harmony is something, you should hear six. Before wrapping up they were joined by their old friends, Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, otherwise known as Sugarland, who had opened the show for LBT. Fairchild called this particular tour a homecoming for both bands, the 25th anniversary of their friendship and collaboration. And while both LBT and Sugarland are stellar on their own, together they are a country music freak of nature, a euphonious riot in an epic way.

You know when you’re sitting around a campfire and someone breaks out a guitar, and suddenly everyone is singing and sounding amazing and you are so present in the moment you think there is nothing that will ever top it? That’s what it was like to hear LBT and Sugarland Thursday. But with really good sound and a light show thrown in.

They started with their first collaboration, a 2008-ish cover of Dream Factory’s “Life in a Northern Town,” and finished with their latest, a version of Phil Collins’ 1985 hit “Take Me Home,” hence the name of the tour. They are singularly like-minded when they sing together; they sang around and over and through each other without ever stepping on anyone’s line, toes or tongues. It was a wonder to behold, and it was fun because when they sing together it’s easy to see their friendship is real and natural — just like their harmonies.

Fairchild is a powerhouse; she can wring out a note like nobody’s business, just listen to her on “Tornado.” But if you’ve never heard Jennifer Nettles sing, well, you need to get out more. Nettles can take a song to the moon and back with impeccable control.

Watching Sugarland together — and oh, how I have missed watching Sugarland together — you’d never know they haven’t toured in over a decade. They never split up, they just sort of meandered onto solo paths while coming back together every now and then for projects, like their last album, 2018’s “Bigger.”

Thursday reminded us what we’ve been missing. Sugarland is just plain fun to watch. Playful and funny, Nettles and Bush always look like they are having the best time of anyone in the room when they’re on stage together.

Opening for LBT, they got down to business with “There Goes the Neighborhood,” the earworm (and I mean that in a good way) “Stuck on You,” and “Want To,” before sending the crowd into overdrive with “Settlin’,” “Babe,” and “Stay.” The crowd swayed and sang and almost took over on “Stay,” but Nettles’ slightly twangy voice was so full and strong it filled TD Garden and then some. I’m pretty sure she could be heard on Legends Way.

Bush is no slouch in the voice department either. He more than holds his own with Nettles and plays a mean guitar and mandolin as well. Between the two of them they generated enough energy to light up every pumpkin from Boston to Douglas, Georgia, where they originated.

And while Nettles and Bush are the featured players, they surround themselves with an amazing musical support system that on this night were all dressed as characters from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, including Mr. McFeely on percussion, Prince Tuesday, King Friday, and Daniel Tiger on guitar, Queen Saturday on bass, and of course Nettles as Cousin Mary Owl and Bush as the big guy himself, Mr. Rogers.

The pair kept the banter to a minimum as if they knew what people really wanted — to hear them sing — but Nettles did pause once during “Baby Girl.” She began pointing out all the parents in the audience with their own baby girls.

“You just touch my heart,” she said. “I’m here to sing but I just had to preach for a minute.”

After joining forces with Sugarland, LBT finished the night with their 2014 hit “Girl Crush,” which raised some controversy when it was first released — a number of stations pulled it from their playlist because some listeners thought it was about lesbianism. But that was all smoothed over once the band explained that it was actually about infidelity (apparently it just depends on who you sleep with). The crowd pretty much matched Fairchild note for note on the song. They ended the show with fan favorite “Boondocks,” where again the crowd sang along, loud and proud, as if they all really were raised in the boondocks.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that even before LBT or Sugarland took the stage, The Castellows — three sisters who look like triplets but aren’t, exactly (two are part of a triplet set, but the third is a brother who is not in the band) — primed the crowd. And kudos to the Georgia girls for doing their homework. They came out dressed as Boston Tea Party-goers in tricorn hats, white breeches, Seinfeld-esque ruffled shirts and blue velvety looking coats.

Ellie, Lily, and Powell Balkcom are described as “neotraditional country,” which I’m pretty sure is a fancy way of saying toe-tapping country pop. They have a killer fiddle player in Justin Maynard, sweet voices reminiscent of Emmylou Harris, but their best number was hands down a deep bluesy country cover of Levon Helm’s “Hurricane.”

I have no doubt they will soon be following in the footsteps of Maddie and Tae or The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks), or even Sugarland and LBT and headlining their own tour before long.