Morgan Wallen performs onstage at the 56th Annual CMA Awards at Bridgestone Arena. Photo / Getty Images
Morgan Wallen performs onstage at the 56th Annual CMA Awards at Bridgestone Arena. Photo / Getty Images
Review by Jenni Mortimer
Jenni Mortimer, Lifestyle and Travel Editor (audience) for New Zealand's Herald, is passionate about telling stories and providing a place to escape for kiwis in amongst the hard news.
If ever there was a question of how hard the country music boom has hit New Zealand it was oh so apparent Wednesday night to a sold-out Spark Arena.
Country music star Morgan Wallen was welcomed to Aotearoa with a sea of cowboy hats, Ariat boots and denim worn in just right. And it was a sight to behold.
The atmosphere was electric as 29-year-old Wallen took to the stage in his trademark trucker cap, jeans and a white T-shirt.
“What’s going on Auckland,” he asked, and the audience roared at the very first sound of his trademark twang and they barely stopped thereafter.
“I really appreciate everyone being here tonight” he continued, telling the audience it was his, and his insanely charismatic band’s, first trip to New Zealand
The first stop of his One Thing At A Time world tour, Wallen took time to check out the scenery after landing in New Zealand and bumped into some super fans.
“You guys were super nice. I could tell you were gonna be pretty rowdy. Looks like that’s gonna be the case,” he said as applause amplified.
Speaking to his country roots, a humble Wallen shared his shock at making it as far as New Zealand: “Most people in my family never made it out of my town. So sure as hell never thought there would be an arena full of people in a different country singing my music.”
Busting out smash hits Chasin You, Wasted on You and You Proof, Wallen had his crowd in the palm of his charismatic and dare I say it, cute hands.
It felt like someone mixed their pre-workout with their good whiskey as he showed off his latest single Last Night, pyrotechnics ignited the arena, and his swagger made it all unbelievably cool.
So cool that my flared denim jeans were declared “a vibe” by a member of the overwhelmingly Gen Z crowd, with millennials and some older fans dotted through - and what appeared to be every bloke from Clevedon in his R.M.Williams boots.
Country singer Morgan Wallen performs at Crypto.com Arena during his Dangerous tour. Photo / Getty Images
The entire hour-and-a-half show was ridiculously upbeat and filled with crowd interaction, including a moment when he took a large wrapped parcel from a member of the audience with a sign that read, “We have a gift for you. Love NZ.” Wallen politely obliged and safely transported the gift to the side stage - we suspect an All Blacks jersey was within the foiled wrapping.
The moment,however, appeared to start an avalanche of gift-giving with hats, signs, sweatshirts and pairs of underwear being tossed at the singer for the remainder of the concert.
While Wallen was the undisputable main character, his band were the moment, jamming and having the time of their life as they moshed, danced and played up for the cameras. The band weren’t what you would expect from the country brief, but they fulfilled the pure, raw entertainment brief and the rowdy crowd loved every second.
The Cover Me Up singer also took time to share stories behind his songs, including one he wrote about a beautiful girl he saw for a split second when sitting at the traffic lights. When he asked his buddy, who he wrote the song with, who the girl was he replied, “Looks like somebodies problem,” the song, appropriately called Somebodies Problem was then met with a roar.
Wallen’s allure made his crowd reminisce, wondering if they have ever been someone’s girl in a truck, or maybe think back to someone they sank a glass of whiskey for and what could have been.
But shortly before the encore, perfectly concluded with his most well-known hit, Whiskey Glasses, the singer spoke about what matters most to him, his son Indigo Wallen.
After Indigo was born 2 years ago, Wallen made the heartfelt revelation that he then “felt like I had a new reason to wake up in the morning.”
And judging by the smiles on faces, joy and at times an absolute fan frenzy in Spark Arena there will be a lot of Morgan Wallen fans waking up this morning feeling the exact same way.
