Morgan Wallen sings about whiskey and not much else to sold-out Arlington crowd

You probably already know how you feel about Morgan Wallen. He’s either the best thing to happen to mainstream country music since snap tracks, or he’s the poster boy for everything wrong with the genre today.

So this review probably won’t change anyone’s minds. He’s virtually critic-proof anyway; Wallen saw a 339% increase in sales after radio pulled his songs following a 2021 incident where he was caught on camera saying a racial slur. Thursday night at AT&T Stadium, I saw several fans wearing T-shirts with Wallen’s smiling mug shot on it, a reference to his April arrest by the Nashville Police Department after he allegedly threw a chair from the top of a six-story bar on Broadway. He was eventually charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment and one count of disorderly conduct.

But while the “Last Night” singer has been in the news recently for his offstage antics, Wallen is still country music’s biggest star and arguably the biggest influence on its current sound. His most recent album, “One Thing At A Time,” spent 19 weeks at No. 1. His song “Last Night” set multiple Billboard Hot 100 records. His double album “Dangerous” beat Billboard records set by Garth Brooks in 1992. Several of Wallen’s songs have gone viral on TikTok, and he frequently collaborates with artists outside of the country genre, like Drake and North Texas’ own Post Malone (who didn’t make an appearance, but there’s always hope for Friday night).

With all of that edginess and those industry accolades, one would think Wallen’s live show would blow you away. But the One Night At A Time tour performance he put on for a sold-out crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington Thursday night relied on excessive spectacle to mask the fact that his music just doesn’t have much to say.

Whiskey, whiskey, whiskey

Not that that’s a bad thing. Those making Wallen out to be a harbinger of doom for country music are conveniently forgetting the way people felt about Luke Bryan in the 2000s or Garth Brooks in the ‘90s. Country “purists” have always believed that their preferred country styling is the best.

Wallen makes country party music, like Sam Hunt and Luke Bryan before him. And a lot of it is fun; “I Wrote The Book” and “One Thing At A Time” are witty crowd-pleasers, and “Sunrise” sounds like if Lil Wayne spent a weekend on Broadway while making the rap-rock album “Rebirth.” But you know what they say about too much fun.

Wallen started off Thursday night’s show with a live video of him walking through the tunnel in the stadium, stretching his arms and shadow-boxing and hyping up the crowd. It felt like an athlete’s run from the locker room to the field — something Wallen, a former college baseball player, knows a thing or two about. (Also, his last North Texas concert was at Globe Life Field in 2022.)

Wallen also highlighted the AT&T Stadium location in another way. He strolled out for the encore at the end of the night in an Emmitt Smith jersey, and then his band also took the stage in Dallas Cowboys jerseys.

He barely stood still throughout the entire 23-song set, running, skipping and kicking things off with multiple rounds of pyrotechnics during “Ain’t That Some.” At least four other songs got the fire treatment, too. At the stadium’s entrance, fans were given light-up wristbands to wear, which lit up during each song.

A massive video screen behind Wallen had animations for everything. During the slower part of the set, Wallen walked from the main stage in the east end zone to a raised stage close to the west end zone, greeting fans as he went.

After about four songs, though, it became clear the repetitive subject matter of the night was whiskey, getting drunk, being lovesick, comparing your lovesickness to alcoholism, or all of the above. Country music is known for its drinking songs, but this is just tedious.

Quiet moments steal the show

I was in the minority on that thought, though, because the crowd (mostly women, of all ages) was hanging on Wallen’s every word, and oftentimes shouted his words back to him. The best moments of the night came when Wallen put a clever new spin on the same old formula, like when he compares an old relationship to a heartbreaking baseball season in “‘98 Braves,” which he performed from a set of bleachers on stage left:

“Between them big three pitchers,

Andrew and Chipper,

It was gonna be hard to keep up with the Jones’

But as fate would have it

That Atlanta magic

Got put out by them damn Padres”

That’s the kind of song that feels specific to Wallen and his life experiences (although he didn’t write it). Similarly, his piano playing on another breakup song, “Sand In My Boots,” stripped everything down to just his voice and the keys, and was a show standout. His version of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up” also got the crowd swaying and singing along, even if that song about getting sober felt out of place in a setlist of songs about getting drunk.

Toward the end of the set, Wallen performed one of his earliest hits, “Chasin’ You,” in front of a replica of his grandmother’s house, on stage right. Those two personal touches — his baseball days and his family roots — grounded the performance whenever it got too overloaded with spectacle. That, plus his mini-set from the far end zone, were what stood out: Personal moments that had something to say other than “let’s get drunk.”

Shortly after “Chasin’ You,” Wallen moved on to more songs about scorned lovers, booze, bars, whiskey glasses and last nights to end the show.

But by now, you already know if that’s something you would like or not. As for me, I could take it or leave it.

MORGAN WALLEN SETLIST, AT&T STADIUM, ARLINGTON TEXAS (JULY 25, 2024)

1. Ain’t That Some
2. I Wrote The Book
3. One Thing At A Time
4. Everything I Love
5. You Proof
6. ‘98 Braves
7. 7 Summers
8. Sunrise
9. I Had Some Help (with Post Malone music video)
10. Cover Me Up (Jason Isbell cover)
11. Lies Lies Lies
12. Sand In My Boots
13. Up Down
14. Cowgirls
15. Chasin’ You
16. Heartless
17. Wasted On You
18. This Bar
19. More Than My Hometown
20. Whiskey Glasses

Encore

1. Thinkin’ Bout Me
2. Last Night
3. The Way I Talk

This story was originally published July 26, 2024 at 4:10 AM.

Jake Harris

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

817-390-7237

Jake Harris is the Service Journalism Editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He has spent nearly 10 years working as a digital producer across newsrooms in Texas. He mainly writes about pop culture and local North Texas happenings and occasionally writes concert reviews.