It turns out the only way to top Luke Combs on a Friday night at Lambeau Field is with a Saturday night.
The country singer’s second of back-to-back concerts May 15 and 16 on his My Kinda Saturday Night Tour was every bit as big of a party as the first – bigger, actually. It was sold out, with an expected crowd of somewhere around 55,000. It was also the one that makes 36-year-old Luke Albert Combs from North Carolina a part of Green Bay Packers history as the first act to play consecutive nights at the stadium.
Which concert was better? That’s like trying to choose between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They were both stellar. For anyone lucky enough to be there to soak it all in, on Green Bay’s first 80-degree weekend of the year, no less, surely your night was the best night.
What Combs, the guest artists, the Packers and the fans did was pull off a feel-good weekend filled with memories, happy sing-alongs, endless selfies, so many cowboy boots, a few Cheesehead cowboy hats and even a couple of Luke-alikes.
Sold-out crowd at Lambeau Field for Night 2 of Luke Combs tour
A sold-out crowd at Lambeau Field in Green Bay for Night 2 of Luke Combs’ My Kinda Saturday Night Tour.
Would every concert at Lambeau Field be great, simply because it’s Lambeau Field? Maybe. Or are concerts at Lambeau Field so special, because they don’t happen very often? Probably (this was only the fifth). Is the I-was-there-that-night mystique part of the magic? Definitely.
Just ask Combs.
“It’s not lost on me how insane what’s going on right now is,” he said Saturday.
The second night had its share of moments. Here’s six things that only happened on Saturday.
Packers players, head coach Matt LaFleur shotgun beers
After the Packers offensive line took its turn at a communal shotgun of a beer with Combs during “1, 2 Many” on Friday night, it was players Tucker Kraft, Lukas Van Ness, Josh Jacobs, Edgerrin Cooper, Evan Williams and – surprise! – head coach Matt LaFleur giving it their best shot.
The response from the crowd was as wild as you might imagine. “Go Pack Go” chants broke out, and empty cans were tossed and punted into the crowd from the stage. The rock star moment of it all might have been watching Kraft pull not one, but two spare beers from his back pockets to keep shotgunning while Combs resumed singing. Not easy upstaging someone as big as Combs, but in Green Bay, that’ll do the trick.
Luke Combs switches up Night 2 setlist at Lambeau
Combs has been sticking with primarily the same setlist on the My Kinda Saturday Night Tour, but for the first back-to-back nights on the trek, he did switch up a couple of songs in the middle from Friday to Saturday.
He added “This One’s For You,” a song he wrote as a thank you to everyone who has helped get him to where he is. It was one of the rare non-sing-alongs of the night, and he talked about why it was important for him to play it.
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“There’s so many people that are responsible for this show going on, onstage, backstage, in the parking lot, right here in front of the stage, each and every one of you guys who spent your hard-earned money to be in here tonight,” he said.
“Everybody that’s here, man, is equally as important to this show as I am. If my sound engineers aren’t putting the sound out, the show doesn’t happen. If the lights aren’t right, the show doesn’t happen. If you guys don’t show up, the show doesn’t happen. So hats off to everybody that’s involved in putting this thing together.”
Saturday’s crowd also was treated to a pretty version of “Love You Anyway” and “Does to Me,” a song he recorded with Eric Church. Among those he skipped: “I Ain’t No Cowboy,” a song he wrote with Cody Johnson for his current “The Way I Am” album, and “Remember Him That Way,” both of which he performed Friday.
Couple gets engaged during ‘Beautiful Crazy’
If there’s a more romantic way to get engaged than on a Saturday night at Lambeau Field while Luke Combs and a sold-out crowd are singing “Beautiful Crazy,” let us know.
During the ultimate serenade, the cameras showed a man in a Combs hat and T-shirt in the pit drop to a knee and propose. Their embrace, the kiss and a closeup of her trembling hand with the ring let the crowd know she said “yes.” Combs smiled and watched it unfold as he sang the love song he wrote for his wife before they had even started dating. When he finished, he appeared to hand the guitar pick down to the couple. One of those sheer joy moments that ripped through the bowl.
Luke Combs gives heartfelt talk ahead of ‘Fast Car’ encore
As he did on Friday, Combs talked throughout the night about how grateful he is to be able to play music and how he “misses the hell out of” his wife and three sons when he’s gone. He can’t explain, he said on Saturday, what it’s like to go from playing a sold-out stadium to reading bedtime stories 12 hours later.
Before playing his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” a song he said he considers one of the greatest ever written, he talked touchingly about how he’s been singing since he could talk. How it sometimes got him in trouble in school and how it sometimes drove his parents crazy. How he did it with friends and when he felt alone, when he was happy and when he was sad.
“I think a great song has a way of bringing us together, whether that’s two friends in a car or God knows how many … thousands of people in here tonight,” he said.
“I’m here for one thing, to listen to some damn music, and at least for me, hear some noise that doesn’t drive me crazy. All the noise we have in our everyday lives. Noise that we see on our phones. Noise that we see in the world, and yet for this moment tonight, we all get to be together, Black or White, rich or poor, gay or straight, whatever you are, we’re all in it together tonight.”
Dierks Bentley dusts off song hadn’t done in ‘long, long time’
In between two of his frothiest hits, “Somewhere on a Beach” and “Drunk on a Plane,” Dierks Bentley adjusted his setlist from Night 1 to slide in one of his most touching songs, “Riser.”
“We haven’t played this song in a long, long time, but someone asked for it so we thought we’d throw it into the show tonight,” he said. “Appreciate the fact this song means something to you.”
The 2015 single speaks to being a fighter and a survivor “when darkness comes to town” and life gets hard. Bentley appeared emotional near song’s end.
“Good Lord, why do we do that song?” he said.
Jake Worthington, his adorable daughter crash the party
Jake Worthington, one of the night’s earlier opening acts, came racing out at the end of Bentley’s set, plaid shirt unbuttoned to show his bare chest and stomach, with his 1½-year-old daughter, Whitley, in his arms. The two singers flung their arms around each other and mugged for the cameras, with Bentley patting Worthington’s belly and Whitley looking cute as can be, as kids do when they’re wearing Packers gear.
Worthington had shared an Instagram story earlier in the day of he and Bentley, each with a guitar and wearing Cheeseheads with their names on them, warming up together in the Packers locker room.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or [email protected]. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.
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