By the time Brooks took the stage for his final set on Saturday night, he'd already performed four two-hour shows at the Los Angeles arena in just over 24 hours. The show began a half hour late, but after apologizing for the delay, Brooks delivered two hours of energy and emotion that was classic Garth, from barnburner rockers to tear-in-the-eye ballads.

The unusual booking arrangement was the product of limited availability of the venue due to a busy sports season and massive pent-up demand for Brooks tickets. He "retired" after his 1998 tour and last performed in the area in 2001 in a one-off date for a television special. The resulting schedule had Brooks on stage at 6pm and 10pm Friday (1/25), then at 1, 5 and 9pm on Saturday.

The two-night marathon raised a reported $5 million in ticket proceeds for California firefighters and fire victims affected by swarms of wildfires that engulfed portions of Southern California twice in 2007. Brooks intended to double that figure with merchandise sales and donations, driven in part by a CBS special on Friday which broadcast the first hour of the kick-off show live nationwide at 6pm PST (tape-delayed for West Coast audiences).

The set itself cut no corners, though Brooks' voice showed some hoarseness by night's end. Brooks has never relied on flashy production to bring the hammer or the feather musically, and is still able to create a sense of living room intimacy in a room of nearly 20,000 people with just a grin and a strum of his guitar.

Perhaps Brooks' greatest gift as a performer is his ability to create a sense of shared discovery of his own music by listening hard to hear what it sounds like when fans are singing it back to him, which he does often, his resulting facial reactions zoomed tight onto the arena's screens. A Garth Brooks show generally becomes a mutual admiration society early on, and Brooks, like contemporary top-shelf showmen Bono and Bruce Springsteen, knows exactly how to play his audience--though with nearly every song earning a standing ovation, Brooks didn't have to work very hard to win them over to begin with.

Brooks and his seven-piece band (augmented with two backup vocalists) hit the stage at a full gallop, nearly mirroring the early part of 1998's live release, "Double Live," starting with the driving "Callin' Baton Rouge," followed by "Rodeo" and easing into the good-time shuffle of "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House" before setting his guitar aside and digging deep for a strong "Shameless."

During each show of the stand, Brooks paid homage to some of his musical heroes with a solo-acoustic medley of songs that helped shape his own songwriting. Saturday night, that medley showed up mid-set and included Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried," Jim Croce's "I Got a Name" and "Operator," and Billy Joel's "Piano Man."

Late in the set, Brooks, crouched over and breathing hard, said "I have to admit it. You guys might be wearing me down. But that's fine because... (mischievous twinkle in his eye) I'm Garth Brooks. And when I get tired, I can call in reinforcements."

With that, Trisha Yearwood [ tickets ], Brooks' longtime duet partner and more recently his wife, joined him for powerful takes of their shared hit "In Another's Eyes" and her own "Walkaway Joe."

An emotional Brooks thanked the crowd and his crew with his main set send-off of "The Dance" before returning for a single encore of "Ain't Goin' Down (Til the Sun Comes Up)."

And with that, Brooks returned to his official retirement, but not without proving yet again that he's one of the most natural and dynamic live performers of his generation.

Setlist:
Callin' Baton Rouge
Rodeo
Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House
Shameless
The Beaches of Cheyenne
Two Pina Coladas
The Thunder Rolls
We Shall Be Free
Medley: Mama Tried, I Got A Name, Operator, Piano Man
Unanswered Prayers
That Summer
Papa Loved Mama
More Than a Memory
The River
Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)
In Another's Eyes
Walkaway Joe
Friends In Low Places
The Dance

Ain't Goin' Down (Til the Sun Comes Up)