The Daily O’Collegian

Sugarland, Motion City Soundtrack, Kellie Pickler and Ashton Shepherd performed Friday to a sold-out crowd. Folks, Orange Peel is back.

The fates must have been aligned.

On Friday night, the aptly named “Love on the Inside” tour, along with special guest Motion City Soundtrack, came to Stillwater to perform in the first indoor edition of Orange Peel.

Sugarland and company definitely brought love to the inside of Gallagher-Iba Arena.

As Orange Peel began, signs pointed toward a possible let down.

But after every set, the lights came up to show seats filled with successively larger numbers of people.

When the stage was set for Sugarland, the show looked as it was billed: a sellout.

As more people filed in and Sugarland’s set got closer and closer, the crowd grew louder and rowdier.

By the time Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush took the stage, the atmosphere inside the arena was more like a basketball game than Orange Peel.

Instead of growing restless between Motion City Soundtrack and Sugarland’s set, the crowd started the wave and kept it going for nearly 10 revolutions around the stadium.

It was clear that acoustics would not be a problem by the mid-point of Ashton Shepherd’s show, which was a concern in the minds of the audience.

When Shepherd got to her fourth song, “Sounds so Good,” people were on their feet and even two-stepping next to the stage.

President Burns Hargis and coaches Mike Gundy, John Smith and Travis Ford went to the stage between sets to urge OSU fans to attend athletic events and cheer the Cowboys on to victory no matter the sport.

The OSU Marching Band also lined up in the aisles and played “Ride ‘em Cowboys” between Shepherd and Kellie Pickler.

On the philanthropic side of Orange Peel, the OSU Board of Regents and rodeo team donated what would end up being thousands of dollars to cystic fibrosis research.

But the real highlights of the event were the musical acts.

Former “American Idol” contestant Pickler came to the stage after Shepherd and brought the crowd to its feet with her songs like “Red High Heels” and “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful.”

Pop-rock band Motion City Soundtrack stuck out from the rest of the country acts.

Although some might say they didn’t belong, the band brought a refreshing change of pace and degree of diversity to the event with their active stage show and lead singer Justin Pierre’s slightly irrelevant stories.

Motion City also had the first real stage lighting that added to the effect of the show, but it was overshadowed by the staging that Sugarland brought to Stillwater.

The headlining group brought a giant arch that framed a monstrous video screen behind the stage along with giant globes on either side of the stage.

Any doubts about Nettles’ voice being ready to go after having to cancel their last few shows because of sickness were put to rest and the show went on without a hitch.

The crowd was at its loudest during Sugarland’s show and every song brought a roar from the crowd.

Shouts from the crowd were loudest when Bush ran out past the floor seats and gave one of his guitars to a woman in the stands.

Orange Peel patrons grew to a deafening roar when Nettles and Bush returned to the stage to perform REM’s “The One I Love” as their first encore.

After their second encore with Pickler and Shepherd “Love Shack,” the crew stayed for awhile to sign autographs for fans near the stage.

When all was said and done, Orange Peel ’08 was a rousing success.

With all the changes and setbacks over last year’s cancellation, a few road bumps could and should have been expected, but the whole process ran unexpectedly smooth.

In the end, maybe all that Orange Peel needed was love.