Review: Lady Antebellum’s “Own The Night” Concert Film Rocks

Fans of Lady Antebellum will find plenty to love about the band’s first live concert film, “Own The Night World Tour,” which will be released on Dec. 4. The movie captures all the excitement, best performances, and behind the scenes activities from this year’s tour.

The more than a dozen song performances included in the film were shot during the tour’s closing weekend in Little Rock, Ark. The film follows the show from beginning—when the band crouches side by side on a lift under the stage then dramatically pops up into view together—to the closing when the band walks through the crowd as they exit the stage. Anyone who didn’t see the tour can’t help but leave the film feeling like they really missed out.

Last night in Nashville, the band screened the film at a local movie theater for a mixed group of fans and music industry types. Explaining the film’s origins, group member Charles Kelley said, “This was our first arena headlining tour, so we thought it would be fun to document this moment.”

Added the group’s Hillary Scott, “This tour has been a dream come true and a blessing.”

In addition to the dynamic performances, the film includes plenty of behind the scenes footage, some from the band’s earliest days. It traces their history from traveling by Jeep, to a Winnebago and finally one bus. Scott talks in the film about how the Own The Night tour included 85 people travelling on 14 busses, including those of the opening acts.

Interspersed throughout the film are plenty of humorous moments, including a segment in which the other band members make fun of the group’s multi-instrumentalis​t Dave Haywood for the way he agonized over the decision of precisely which shade of red to paint the piano he’d ultimately use on the tour (pictured above). Other backstage fun includes push-up contests between Kelley and Haywood, and the band playing ping-pong using cardboard cutouts of themselves (promoting Lipton tea) in lieu of paddles.

In one backstage party caught on film, revelers included OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder and “Modern Family” actor Eric Stonestreet. In the film’s funniest moment, Stonestreet engages in a drum-off with Lady A drummer (and Scott’s husband) Chris Tyrell on the top of an inverted plastic trash can.

Also of interest in the film is a short segment on each of the band members’ early musical influences, including adorable home movies of all of them as children.

Other footage included in the film—some of which was previously seen on the band’s Webisode Wednesdays Internet series—includes shots from their European tour dates, and the surprise prom appearance and fundraiser they hosted for a U.S. high school victimized by a tornado.

The film will be released in the U.S. and Canada Dec. 4 in multiple formats including DVD and Blu-ray, and will also be available at all digital retailers. It will be released worldwide in 2013. The DVD will include documentary and bonus footage about how the tour all came together.