Morgan Wallen plays packed Nashville show ahead of tour
The April 2 Pinnacle concert launched his SiriusXM channel, featured a surprise duet with Ella Langley.
“Get me to God’s country,” superstar Morgan Wallen once demanded on a now-infamous Instagram story following a “Saturday Night Live” performance in New York City. Whether Indianapolis fits that bill is unclear, but the merciful roof of Lucas Oil Stadium can’t hurt the notion that it does.
The coverage meant some 55,000 stayed dry in a dreary, drenched downtown on night one of Wallen’s Indianapolis double-header. The May 8 performance was the first of Wallen’s two-show Indy stint on his Still The Problem Tour, with a second headlining performance slated for May 9.
Wallen’s stop marked the first concert at Lucas Oil since Billy Joel and Sting played the stadium in February 2025. The country star returned to venue following back-to-back dates on his One Night at a Time Tour in 2024.
These are my takeaways from the hitmaker’s first of two Indianapolis outings:
Who did Morgan Wallen walk out with in Indianapolis?
In another instance of what one of my favorite music critics calls the “Avengers”-ification of pop culture, Wallen has historically recruited a hometown hero to help him make his entrance during shows. He walked out with former Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen in Minneapolis when the tour kicked off last month, for one, and he’s brought out celebrities like Drake and Tom Brady on previous outings.
Indianapolis offered plenty of options for a night-one cameo. The internet floated Indianapolis Colts punter-turned-sports media personality Pat McAfee, Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark or Colts running back Jonathon Taylor as Wallen’s potential walkout companions. But either something fell through or Wallen opted to go it alone from the beginning: In Indy, he flew totally solo.
There was no walkout surprise to be had in Indianapolis, nor were there many other extras to note during Wallen’s two-plus hour set — though openers Zack John King and Hudson Westbrook appeared briefly during “Up Down” as they have at other stops. Maybe night two will have better luck.
Wallen does win bonus points for rocking a Peyton Manning jersey during the encore. Even more points for his band getting in on the action, all repping custom Colts jerseys of their own.
Despite the stadium extras, Wallen thrives in the stillness
Wallen’s Lucas Oil showing bounced around the expansive catalog that’s crowned him the king of the “more is more” streaming economy. The 28-song set peppered in heavyweights like “Wasted on You” and “Cowgirls,” old favorites like “The Way I Talk” and “Chasin’ You” and recent hits like “20 Cigarettes” and “I’m the Problem.” Wallen closed the set proper with “I Had Some Help,” his mega hit recorded with rap-turned-country phenom Post Malone. I caught that a month ago when Malone headlined Indianapolis’s March Madness Music Festival and will likely see it for a third time when he hits Lucas Oil in June.
Wallen’s hits got the stadium treatment with flashing lights, fireworks and smoke machines. But as the lasers zipped and the pyrotechnics roared, a realization smacked me in the face: I was kind of bored. Odd pacing, including slightly too long breaks between songs and an extended trip through the pit en route to the B-stage, didn’t help matters.
Wallen’s big songs, especially the ones that meet in the middle of the trap/country spectrum where he’s operated for a while, are often his blandest. Smash singles like “Heartless” or “Thinkin’ Bout Me” or even “Last Night,” Billboard’s 2023 Song of the Summer, lack an explosiveness or a dynamism that primes huge hits for stadium shows. Though the crowd was game to shout along, would-be highlights breezed by without much consequence and evaporated into thin air once done.
From my vantage point, Wallen wins bigger when he goes smaller. Two numbers genuinely elicited full-body chills: An arresting cover of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up” and the encore “Sand in My Boots.” The former saw Wallen on the show’s B-stage in the back of the stadium with only acoustic guitars behind him, and the latter placed him solo at a piano (which he plays beautifully).
Wallen spent most of his set dashing around the main stage working to match the stadium frills but ultimately disconnecting amid the chaos. He’s at his most captivating— and his gravelly twang shines brightest — when he strips the extras and sits still.
‘Blue dot fever’ is raging. Was Morgan Wallen affected?
In case you missed it, a severe case of “blue dot fever” has swept the music industry in the past few weeks. Artists like Post Malone, The Pussycat Dolls and Zayn Malik have adjusted or scrapped tour dates amid low ticket sales (though only The Pussycat Dolls have copped to slow sales as the reason for schedule changes). Did this plague impact Wallen?
To my eye, definitely not. Lucas Oil Stadium was positively packed, meaning upwards of 55,000 fans turned out to catch Wallen on night one. Wallen is slated for two nights in each of the 12 cities on the Still The Problem Tour, indicating that his demand more than justifies the bookings.
Wallen noted a few times throughout his set that he misses the more intimate stages he graced at the beginning of his career — like the 8 Seconds Saloon on Indianapolis’ east side, the first venue he ever sold out. Unfortunately for Wallen, tour attendance proves he won’t be back to those venues any time soon.
Why it matters: Morgan Wallen is an Indy win
Wallen is, in no uncertain terms, a massive get for Indianapolis.
Take a look at his Still The Problem Tour map: The usual suspects like Denver and Philadelphia and Chicago — Indy’s neighbor to the north that typically snatches any chance we have at landing an A-list tour — are there, but so are college towns like Gainesville, Florida and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Noticeably absent are any dates in New York or California, the two states where stops from the biggest artists on the planet are all but guaranteed. Whether this was a deliberate effort from Wallen to buck the obvious is unclear, but Indianapolis got a win.
If you don’t count the one-time country singer who played three nights at Lucas Oil in 2024, Wallen is arguably the most successful act to ever cross over from the country fringes to the mainstream. Though he’s known in some circles as country music’s enfant terrible, Wallen is the genre’s golden boy, boasting four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 19 in the top 10.
That Indianapolis can attract an artist of that caliber is a positive sign for the health of our entertainment landscape. That he’s one of four artists slated for stadium shows this year — joining Post Malone in June, Bruno Mars in September and Ed Sheeran in October — is even better.
Contact IndyStar Pop Culture Reporter Heather Bushman at [email protected]. Follow her on X @hmb_1013.
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