It wasn't just another Sugarland show.
On Friday, the award-winning country duo played a free concert at the Conesco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis — just a few miles north of the Indiana State Fair, site of a deadly Aug. 13 stage collapse where seven Sugarland fans died and over 40 were seriously injured.
The country duo were just about to perform at that late summer show when strong storm winds resulted in the tragedy.
"Obviously we are here in October –- we were supposed to do this show in August. Obviously, the stage is different, you are different and we are different," singer Jennifer Nettles told Friday's packed audience, according to the Associated Press.
Although the Friday concert was free, the band (Nettles and Kristian Bush) asked attendees to donate to a victim relief fund, one which has already raised $1 million.
"We are all changed by what happened then," an emotional Nettles said. "But we are going to try to give you the best show that we can and to celebrate healing with you and to celebrate life and music with you here tonight.
17-year-old Brad Humphrey was partially paralyzed at the Aug. 13 incident when he was hit by falling stage rigging; he and his mother, Sue, decided to attend Friday's show last minute.
Towards the end of the show, Nettles waved a flag with the word "Heal" painted on it
"She usually has `Love' on that flag, but this time she spray-painted `Heal' on it and I thought that was a very, very good touch to the show," Sue Humphrey told the AP of the concert, where the duo performed rousing versions of their hit songs, including "Incredible Machine."
"It's good that this benefit concert should happen, but it may be too hard for some people to go through it," Anthony Ng, a psychiatrist who deals with survivors of disasters, told the AP. "Obviously everybody's different and there's no right way or wrong way to do this."
