Wildwood, N.J. — Seemingly dodging the thunderous rumble from the present crowd, country music star Kenny Chesney checks the volume of tweets from livestream viewers of his concert to decide whether they and the audience in front of him deserve an encore. A crew member gives him a thumbs-up.
"There is so much activity on the Internet that we decided to play one more song," the 44-year-old crooner says to some 25,000 people in attendance at Wildwood, N.J., from a stage built atop beach sand near a shoreline.
Chesney's nod to fans listening to his music from afar shows just how much musicians care about pleasing people who can't travel to concerts or prefer to watch them on YouTube or Vevo — whether the footage be livestreamed or recorded on fellow fans' mobile devices.
The online viewers earned encore song, "The Boys of Fall," surprisingly followed by nine more performances of fan favorites like "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" and "I Go Back." Chesney wooed everyone with 27 songs.
On that humid night in June, with a lit Ferris wheel to his right and a wooden rollercoaster to his left, Chesney made the free concert just as entertaining for the video gazer as he did for the sweaty crowd in New Jersey.
Behind the Scenes, a Digital-Savvy Team Rallies an Audience on Social Media
Nearly 400 people brought Chesney's concert to life for the Jersey shore set and online fanbase. The spectacle was part of the American Express Unstaged concert series, which has netted more than 100 million livestream views on YouTube and Vevo for artists such as Usher, Coldplay, Sugarland and Arcade Fire.
Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme ("Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia") ran Chesney's livestream.
"I wasn't too excited about shooting near the ocean, but when I got here the atmosphere was unbelievable," Demme revealed backstage with sand between his toes on June 20 hours before the show.
Each Unstaged concert pairs an artist with a well-known director: Usher with Hamish Hamilton, Jack White with Gary Oldman, John Legend with Spike Lee and Mary J. Blige with Adam Shankman.
But to ensure people tune in to Chesney's livestream, American Express employed its social media staff, who used Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to spark excitement on concert day.
"We wanted to connect the online fans with the on-site experience," Mona L. Hamouly, AmEx's director of social media communications, told Mashable minutes before showtime.
We're kicking off 1st day of summer w/@KennyChesney #AmexUNSTAGED beach party, livestreamed from #JerseyShore, 830pmET aexp.co/77Y
— American Express (@AmericanExpress) June 20, 2012
Hamouly monitored fan participation during the concert to help spur on buzz for an encore.
Want to keep @KennyChesney's beach party going? Tweet now w #AmexUNSTAGED to unlock an amazing encore song! Aexp.co/U7O
— American Express (@AmericanExpress) June 21, 2012
Prior to showtime, she had her team scout the boardwalk to give tickets to fans tweeting they needed them.
The concerts coincide with the artists' album releases. The livestreaming efforts have helped make four of the Unstaged acts' albums debut at number one. Usher's Looking 4 Myself landed in the top spot just this week.
More Superstars Inject Concerts With Digital and Social Media Elements
Musicians are no strangers to infusing interactive components into their live shows. Pop powerhouse Kelly Clarkson takes cover song suggestions on YouTube and Twitter. In the video above, a lucky fan recorded a clip of the original American Idol picking and singing her recommendation of Radiohead's "Creep."
"My dream came true," fan Deborah Bechtel says in the video's YouTube description. "She covered it and slayed it, just like I knew she would. Best night of my life because she said my name and sang my request. Sorry for the hysterical, shaking hands."
Boy band sensation One Direction answers questions from Twitter users, candidly and hilariously, at all shows.
American Express's Unstaged performances always include a digital component, too.
For Usher's Unstaged concert this month in London, AmEx had fans submit digital avatars of themselves for a chance to be virtual backup dancers during his performance of "Scream" in Hammersmith Apollo. And for Jack White's show, fans were tasked with creating a digital mosaic by sending in photos of their faces.
What concerts have you seen online and what made them special for you?
Photos courtesy of of Donald Bowers/Getty Images for American Express
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