![\"\"](\"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-08-02-at-10.03.36-AM-300x223.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Morgan Wallen at Star Lake (David Lehr)<\/p>\n
Coming off an up-down year, to say the least, Morgan Wallen hit the stage Thursday night with \u201cUp Down\u201d and promptly got the biggest crowd of The Pavilion at Star Lake season bouncing.<\/p>\n
Wallen, whose 2021 came with the top album of the year and a near career cancellation over his drunken use of a racist slur, rolled into town on The Dangerous Tour, which packed 23,000-plus into Burgettstown and easily could have done one of the stadiums given the resale tickets going for hundreds of dollars.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old country star has only two albums to his credit, but he\u2019s loaded them with a whopping 46 combined songs, so he has plenty to work with on this first headlining tour.<\/p>\n
After a playlist of the Stones, Nugent, Zeppelin and Aerosmith, Wallen hit the stage with his six-piece band wearing a dark T-shirt, white jeans and white cap (backward).<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all,\u201d he said, \u201cmy name is Morgan Wallen, and we\u2019re gonna sing some songs \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
After a long drive, a scorching hot tailgate and two opening acts, the crowd was so wound up, he had to sing over them as if he was the Beatles.<\/p>\n
For all the heat he\u2019s stirred up, Wallen has a pretty relaxed stage manner and performs the songs more like he\u2019s just hanging out with friends than playing to the back of the lawn.<\/p>\n
He took the mob to rowdy places with bangers like \u201cCountry A$$ S\u2014t\u201d and \u201cThis Bar,\u201d but the meat of the set was pretty heavy there for a while on the slow songs. He soothed the crowd with ballads like \u201cSomebody\u2019s Problem,\u201d \u201c865,\u201d \u201cSand in My Boots\u201d (at the piano) and \u201cSilverado for Sale,\u201d which had the hillside glowing with cellphones.<\/p>\n
Introducing the love song \u201cChasin’ You,\u201d he told his back story, saying, \u201cWhen I was 3, my mom put me up on stage at church, and I\u2019ve been singing ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s grown into that quite well, with a voice that has a little sandy grit to it.<\/p>\n
He put that to good use on his impassioned reading of Jason Isbell\u2019s \u201cCover Me Up,\u201d which had girls up on the lawn in their daisy dukes and boots slow dancing with their guys. Not something you generally see at a Jason Isbell show.<\/p>\n
At one point, Wallen took charge and calmly halted the set and asked fans to clear a path for the paramedics to get to a fan who had passed out.<\/p>\n
He moved on with the acoustic \u201cThought You Should Know,\u201d a sweet song of gratitude to his mom, and kept it tender with Ernest\u2019s \u201cFlower Shops.\u201d<\/p>\n
He eventually broke the mellow mood, bringing back his rowdier opener Hardy for a dirty rockin\u2019 cover of the latter\u2019s \u201cHe Went to Jared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallen and the band hit it hard with the staccato \u201cWarning\u201d and kept it thumping right through to the climax of his breakout hit, \u201cWhiskey Glasses.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lot of people there probably hadn\u2019t seen Wallen before and weren\u2019t sure what expect from the guy who got arrested in 2020 for being wasted at Kid Rock\u2019s bar. It certainly wasn\u2019t the wild drunkfest of a set reminiscent of early Eric Church. Wallen, who seemed to favor the more tender songs, kept it up-down and musically varied throughout.<\/p>\n
Hardy was not like that. Taking the stage after the house PA blasted Mac Miller\u2019s \u201cDonald Trump\u201d and Ozzy Osbourne, he came out in a \u201cHARDY SUCKS\u201d T-shirt and denim shorts and proceeded to rock the house like a headliner with \u201cSold Out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Backed by a hard rock band with a killer drummer, the singer and Nashville songwriter from Philadelphia, Miss., exuded more of that Kid Rock vibe. He got right to the country basics with songs titled \u201cTRUCK\u201d and \u201cBOOTS,\u201d and he dedicated \u201cBOYFRIEND,\u201d which goes \u201cI don\u2019t want to be your boyfriend anymore,\u201d to his new fianc\u00e9.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said this three times before, but I think this is the best crowd we\u2019ve had on this tour,\u201d he noted. He can say it again Saturday at Country Thunder.<\/p>\n
On \u201cGIVE HEAVEN SOME HELL\u201d all he had to do was hold out the mic and the crowd shouted the whole verse. Actually, it happened multiple times \u2014 the fans were especially hyped to express their patriotism on \u201cGod\u2019s Country\u201d \u2014 so while Hardy may not be a household name or the usual country hunk, he\u2019s certainly loved by the Wallen faithful.<\/p>\n
Kameron Marlow, who was an unannounced addition to the bill, was up first with a solid set that included his hit \u201cGiving You Up,\u201d a metallic version of Johnny Cash\u2019s \u201cFolsom Prison Blues\u201d and a song called \u201cMoney Ain\u2019t S\u2014\u201d that people probably weren\u2019t buying considering the price of getting to this party Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Scott Mervis:\u00a0smervis@post-gazette.com<\/a>\u00a0.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Morgan Wallen at Star Lake (David Lehr) Coming off an up-down year, to say the least, Morgan Wallen hit the stage Thursday night with \u201cUp Down\u201d and promptly got the biggest crowd of The Pavilion at Star Lake season bouncing. … Continue reading