Star Tribune photo by Marlin Levison

Miranda Lambert has worked hard to get to this point in her career: four albums in seven years (three albums went No. 1), two No. 1 singles and a shelf full of awards, including three ACM albums of the year and a Grammy for best female country vocal performance.

But she's going to have to work harder if she wants to succeed as a headliner, as my review of her concert Friday at Target Center suggested. Maybe she should have paid more attention when she opened for Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Toby Keith. They know how to stage an arena show.

Lambert's covers made sense (loved Lady Gaga's "You and I," which is such a country song) but her failure to do "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" did not, and neither did showing a sign for "Minneapolis" with its population at the end of "Famous in a Small Town." She also could brush up on her show-womanship, and perhaps consult with a director who could create a more effective staging vision for the On Fire Tour.

Little things can make a big difference - like when there was a close up of Lambert's face on the giant screen during "Mama's Broken Heart" and then the director shook the image and made it blurry, heightening the energy and excitement, with minimal effort on Miranda's part.

If you can't tell from the photos, Lambert wore a "Hunger Games" tribute T-shirt and a black, scalloped mini-skirt, with tall black boots covered with silver studs and spangles of some kind.

As for the opening acts, Chris Young was impressive. He's got a strong, rangy voice, and he clearly amps up the energy onstage. Jerrod Niemann was flat both vocally and performance wise. He was much more spirited when I saw him appearing after the World's Toughest Rodeo at the X last year..

Here is Miranda Lambert's set list on Friday:

Fastest Girl in Town/ Kerosene/ Heart Like Mine/ New Strings/ Over You/ Baggage Claim/ Fine Tune/ You and I (Lady Gaga)/ Dead Flowers/ Famous in a Small Town/ Only Prettier/ Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo (Rick Derringer)/ Mama's Broken Heart/ All Kinds of Kinds/ The House That Built Me/ That's the Way That the World Goes Round (John Prine)/ Gunpowder and Lead/ White Liar ENCORE Misery and Gin (Merle Haggard)/ King of the Road (Roger Miller)