With a red solo cup in hand, Elle King came dancing onto the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium stage to the sound of her band playing.
King put her drink in a holder positioned on the side of her microphone stand and sang "Last Damn Night."
King filled MemAud with the musical styles of blues, rock, pop and country on Tuesday.
Before King performed, country-blues singer Paul Cauthen performed. Cauthen opened with his song "Still Drivin’,” and played songs that were mostly from his album My Gospel. He sang a mixture of upbeat tunes and ballads, such as “I'll Be The One” and “Let It Burn.”
Jamie Howard, who is from Jackson, said she liked Cauthen’s vibe, and even liked the artist’s aesthetic, saying he “wears nice boots.” Howard said Cauthen reminded her of country singers Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.
“He had that same kind of country twang,” she said.
Cauthen also performed with King in the middle of her setlist. The two sang Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” and brought the audience, which was sitting prior to the song, to its feet.
Wielding a guitar or banjo for most of the night, King sang and told the stories behind her songs. Before she sang “Playing for Keeps,” the artist explained the story behind the song.
“When I was younger, these girls were real mean to me … so I wrote a song and now I sing it all over the world — making fun of them,” King said.
Mostly singing original songs, King performed “Good To Be A Man,” “I Told You I Was Mean,” “Kocaine Karolina” and “Where the Devil Don’t Go.”
King, who is from Wellston, gave a tear-filled shoutout to her grandfather who was in the audience before playing a song she wrote on his front porch, “Song of Sorrow.”
“I love you so much papaw,” she said. “You’re the best in the whole world.”
Tomi Holzapfel, who is from King’s hometown, said she grew up knowing King’s family.
“We all kind of played together when we were kids,” she said.
The concert was Holzapfel’s fifth time seeing the musician live, and she brought a group of 24 people with her, which donned matching T-shirts scripted with “Elle.”
“Her music is so unique,” Holzapfel said. “She’s just cool — a down-to-earth lady.”
King sang her own rendition of The Beatles’ “Oh! Darling,” in which she brought out a couple from her family and had them slow dance while she performed. The reason for doing so, King said, was because the world needed more love.
“Even though this world is beautiful, there is one thing that it’s lacking — it’s love,” she said.
Molly Westermeyer’s favorite part came at the end of the night when King sang an encore performance of “America’s Sweetheart.”
“I knew the words to that song, so it helped,” Westermeyer, who is a senior at Marietta High School, said. “Everybody was singing for the most part, so that was awesome.”
Before the encore performance, King rounded out her set with her top-10 single “Ex’s and Oh’s,” and thanked the audience for attending the concert.
“If a girl from Wellston can do it, anyone else can,” she said. “Thank you so much … It’s good to be home.”
