It’s only been slightly more than a decade since Morgan Wallen released his debut single, “The Way I Talk,” in 2015. Since then, he’s become one of the biggest superstars in music, routinely jockeying back and forth with Taylor Swift for artist of the year on Billboard’s year end charts (he was triumphant in 2025).
Like Swift, he is also one of contemporary music’s largest live draws, routinely playing multiple nights at stadiums on tour before an adoring audience.
As he kicked off the Still The Problem tour Friday night (April 10) at Minneapolis’s U.S. Bank Stadium (with a second show Saturday night), he showed why his popularity is only growing. Wallen has developed into an energetic, engaging performer, who is eager to make a stadium show seem as intimate as possible. With 20 No. 1s on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, his show is chockful of hits, but he still made room for thoughtful song choices.
The show opened with a taped piece featuring popular podcaster Theo Von as Rick the stage manager, who is unsuccessfully trying to keep Wallen from touching the equipment. Wallen touches a light knob and the lights in the stadium go up. He messes with a propane tank and flash pots go off. It’s clever, but even more impressive is the video has the name of the venue, city and an accurate time clock, which we imagine will change in every city. That attention to detail is impressive and it was later clear how much thought had gone into every element of the show.
After the taped piece, Wallen continued the now tradition of walking out to “Broadway Girls” (Lil Durk’s 2022 hit featuring Wallen) with a native son (there haven’t been too many native daughters) in the city he’s playing in. Opening night, it was former Minnesota Viking and Hall of Famer Jared Allen, and the crowd went crazy when they spotted him. Again, it’s an add-on that ignites the audience, pay homage to their hometown, and heightens the show.
With three acts on the bill besides Wallen, the country star is giving the audience top value for its dollar, but if they want to catch all acts, they need to get their early: Vincent Mason went on at 5:15. For the first night in Minneapolis (and on a handful of other dates), the singer was joined by Thomas Rhett, an arena headliner of his own, developing act Mason and rowdy Gavin Adcock (the latter two joined Wallen for a messy, but fun “Up Down,” made more amusing because Mason and Adcock were dressed in white caddy jumpsuits in homage to The Masters, which is currrently going on).
Though he’s only been off the road for a few months, there was clearly pent-up demand for Wallen: the women in front of me at Will Call screamed for five minutes when they realized their tickets were in the pit, allowing them to get up close to Wallen. The group sitting behind me declared Friday night’s show was in the top five concerts they’ve ever seen and then upgraded it to top three as the night wore on.
The show is finding its pacing, which is understandable since it was opening night, and the sound, like at most stadiums, was muddy at times. Wallen came out 20 minutes late–and 70 minutes after Thomas Rhett finished his set, so any momentum that Thomas Rhett had created was long gone. Also, while the setlist is strong, it feels like a collection of randomly placed songs (with one exception noted below) rather than an attempt to take the audience on an emotional adventure with a story arc. Wallen came out hot, rushing around the gigantic stage and then after a few songs, slowed down and said he was trying to “calm my heart rate,” perhaps a reference to being awed by the audience and the reception and opening-night jitters, but also by the sheer athleticism it takes to sing and run on that mammoth stage, which anyone would clearly have to build up to (We’d be interested to know how many miles Wallen logs in one performance.)
Below are the best moments from the tour’s opening night at U.S. Bank Stadium.
