Featuring Luke Combs, Mitchell Tenpenny, Jordan Davis and Lane Pittman
The short walk from Southern Cross Station to aptly named Marvel Stadium in Melbourne Docklands was a crisp curtain raiser to the largest concert or sporting crowd to ever grace this vibrant venue.
More than 60,000 fans filled the three-story level seating and moist mosh pit in the colosseum that hosts AFL football and diverse concerts.
Mine hosts Frontier Touring and Michael Chugg Entertainment ensured early birds got more than worms in their Skyline Room VIP function.
Top shelf champagne, wines, brandy, whiskey, beers, soft drinks, donuts, briskets, chicken, beef and lamb treats were a delicious entrée for the lucky guests.
The food and liquors were top shelf and so was the service by the Marvel masters and mistresses who roamed the rooms with trays, jugs, bottles and flutes of a drinking kind.
It was no surprise we were greeted by Van Diemen’s Land export Michael Chugg AM who is 12 days older than this reviewer.
We first met on the mean streets of Launceston in 1965 when I was a teenage cadet journalist on the Launceston Examiner and Chuggie was a novitiate music gig promoter with latter day DJ, TV host and Tasmanian Minister For Police Jim Cox – later a flat mate of mine in Burnie on the island’s north west coast.
I reminded mine host Chuggie we vividly recalled how music artists and venues who wished to be booked by him needed to call him on his father-fireman Victor’s fire station home phone number.
It was that sort of humble beginning we briefly revisited as Chuggie confided he never dreamed he would one day be one of this country’s major music promoters, record label boss and manager of many major artists and tonight’s opening act Lane Pittman.
This was not the first rodeo for Mt Isa escapee and latter-day Tamworth tunesmith Lane who opened for superstar Luke Combs and other stars from the age of 17.
Now at just 18 he was now opening Combs concert tour for the second time.
Lane was also mentored by expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban as a semi-finalist on The Voice in 2022.
Pittman Drives In The Fast Lane
“I know a smile is hard to fake
when nothin′ seems to go your way
but tomorrow is another day
that's what mama always used to say
can I get an amen for the one time
for the bad days, for the good nights?
no, it doesn′t really matter how it all goes down if it all works out
so, can I get an Amen for the weekend
for whatever the hell you believe in?
no, it doesn't really matter how it all goes down if it all works out.”
"Amen For The Weekend" - Sean Kennedy, Blaise Railey, Imad Royal, Lane Pittman.
It may seem like a long trip from Mt Isa to Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium but Lane Pittman was in overdrive from the moment he stepped on stage with his memorable melodies.
The tall troubadour, who shared his height with many AFL stars who graced the same stadium on their chosen pursuits, was a demon in the dusk with his hot band.
When he strutted the board walk and then spun around viewers were treated to the words on the back of his tee shirt – ‘Built Like A Mack Truck.’
Lane thanked fans, like the early settlers, for their enthusiastic arrival as queues surged from the street to their stage-front feet.
Pitman’s pals backed him as he ignited his originals from his six track EP including Going Nowhere Fast, Amen For The Weekend, Ain’t Too Much To Ask, Love In a Country Town, Let’s Get Lost and NK.
Please excuse the reviewer if he mixed up the song delivery order but from three storeys above it was an eagle eye test for the very best.
Mitchell Tenpenny – The Full Quid
“She says she likes to dance
she loves to make friends with my friends
she don’t give a damn what anyone thinks
when she says she gonna maybe wanna
get drunk, get waffles at two-in-the-morning
if she want it, yeah, she got it
cause she got me like that.”
“Anything She Says” - Andrew Paul Albert-Jordan Schmidt-Mitchell John Thompson-Mitchell Tenpenny-Thomas Walter Jordan.
Nashville singer-songwriter Mitchell Tenpenny followed Lane onto the main stage as the mosh pit crowd surged forward to see the long-tall Tennessean.
Mitchell’s hot band included his bassist brother Rafe and a guitarist whose tattoos lit up the three large video screens.
“Thank Y’all for showing up so early,” Tenpenny 35, greeted his audience as he led his team on stage, “This is one of the best places on earth. How are we all doing tonight?”
They opened their set with We Got History and followed with Bigger Mistakes and Bucket List.
“I wrote this next song with two mates from Australia,” was his introduction to Anything She Says that he explained was not what they did with all his feminine advice.
He then led his band through Truth About You.
Tenpenny changed his currency to hard liquor with his next two songs – the wry wordplay of Alcohol You Later and more explicit Drunk Me.
“Thank you for singing along,” he told his audience after performing songs from his five albums – “we’ll come back here later.”
He also introduced his band including his Texan drummer – Jimmy Elcock.
Mitchell and his band threw plectrums into the mosh pit and autographed western Stetsons thrust at them by stage side fans.
“We have one memory together before my good buddy Jordan Davis and Luke Combs come on stage,” Mitchell premised before his set finale – the Goo-Goo Dolls cover Iris.
Shreveport Singer-Songwriter Jordan Davis Buys Dirt
“So buy dirt
find the one you can't live without
get a ring, let your knee hit the ground
do what you love but call it work
and throw a little money in the plate at church
send your prayers up and your roots down deep
add a few limbs to your family tree
watch their pencil marks and the grass in the yard all grow up
cause the truth about it is it all goes by real quick
you can't buy happiness but you can buy dirt.”
“Buy Dirt” - Jacob J. Davis-Jordan Davis-Josh Jenkins-Matt Jenkins.
Louisiana born Jordan Davis was the next cab off the Marvel rank as he stormed on stage with his dynamic band.
The Shreveport singer-songwriter, 36, performed songs from his first two albums – Home State (2018) and Bluebird Days (2023) -and two EPS – his self-titled 2020 disc and 2021 release Buy Dirt.
He opened with 2024 single I Ain’t Saying and cryptic 2023 hit Tucson Too Late before settling into 2019 tune Slow Dancing In A Parking Lot.
“The next song I put out with a buddy of mine – Luke Bryan,” was his intro to 2021 hit Buy Dirt that he wrote with his singer brotherJacob, Matt Jenkins and Josh Jenkins.
“Sing the chorus with me – you can’t buy happiness but you can buy dirt,” was his advice to vocal fans.
They followed with Almost Maybes, Next Thing You Know and 2017 tune Singles You Up.
“I have one more song before we turn it over to Luke Combs,” he declared as he finished with What My World Spins Around.
“Thank-you Melbourne, we’ll see you again” was his farewell to the avid audience.
Luke Combs Audience For Magpies Shooey Sharers
“Cause longneck ice cold beer never broke my heart
like diamond rings and football teams have torn this boy apart
like a neon dream, it just dawned on me/ that bars and this guitar and longneck ice cold beer never broke my heart
no it never broke my heart.”
“Beer Never Broke My Heart” - Jonathan Singleton-Luke Combs-Randy Montana.
North Carolina born superstar Luke Combs arrival on stage was greeted with a huge roar and graphic images on three video screens for the 60,000 strong crowd.
Combs, 34, and his band’s hot hombres ignited the audience with a loud but proud performance that delivered dynamics to every level in this colosseum crescendo.
“Welcome to y’all here in Melbourne, it’s great to see you all again,” were among Luke’s words of wisdom and joy about his fourth Australian tour.
“Coming on stage here today is good for my soul. If you’re in here tonight you’re my folks. It’s great to be back here in Australia – one of the greatest countries in the world.”
It was hard to hear exact wording of many of Luke’s between songs banter because of the ear shattering music and mirth shared with this adoring audience so I won’t try to.
There was no sign of his wife Nicole and their two sons Tex and Beau as he opened his set with The Kind Of Love We Make from his third album Growing Up and followed with Cold As You.
The tempo surged even higher when they performed their turbo charged Where The Wild Things Are from his fourth album Getting Old.
They followed with Does To Me, Forever After All and My Kinda Folk dedicated to this cosmic crowd.
He reached back to One Number Away and Houston We Got A Problem from his debut album This One’s For You.
They followed with Doing This, Must Have Never Met You and Even Though I’m Leaving before he responded to an audience request for 5 Leaf Clover from his fourth album Getting Old that they followed with the album titled track Growing Up And Getting Old.
He punctuated his Shania Twain cover Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under and Tracy Chapman hit Fast Car with Loving On You and Beautiful Crazy.
They followed She Got the Best of Me and debut hit Hurricane with Brooks & Dunn tune Brand New Man.
The night was still young when they performed pre-encore anthems 1, 2 Many and When It Rains It Pours.
There was plenty of action behind the stage as some marauding magpies prepared to swoop for Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma and fiery finale Beer Never Broke My Heart.
Yes, it was a chance for Collingwood stars Jack Crisp, Brody Mihocek and Beau McCreery to leap to stage front to share a beer shooey with their hero Luke.
They may not have celebrated last year’s AFL premiership with Brisbane Lions star Charlie Cameron who joined Luke on his previous tours but they celebrated a bucolic break from pre-season training at their nearby Yarra bank HQ.
Luke’s final farewell to this record crowd was a welcome poignant promise – “see you next year.”
It was a stunning show by the former small-town barman and bouncer who earned a memorable 60 Minutes tribute on the Sabbath that detailed him rising above his OCD and pre-show nerves and anxiety.
He detailed how he suffered in private with a debilitating health struggle.
“It’s more of an obscure form of OCD,” Luke revealed.
“Probably the worst flare-up of it I’ve had in, I would say three or four years, started about two days before this trip, Luke revealed.
‘It’s something that in some way I at least think about every day. There’s some tinge of it to some extent every day.”
My apologies for not including all Combs on stage comments but this was a loud and proud crowd who drowned this old country boy’s ears.
Luke Combs Song list
- The Kind of Love We Make
- Cold as You
- Where the Wild Things Are
- Does to Me
- Forever After All
- My Kinda Folk
- One Number Away
- Houston, We Got a Problem
- Doin’ This
- Going, Going, Gone
- Must’ve Never Met You
- Even Though I’m Leaving
- 5 Leaf Clover (Audience Request)
- Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old
- Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? (Shania Twain cover)
- Lovin’ on You
- Beautiful Crazy
- Fast Car (Tracy Chapman cover)
- She Got the Best of Me
- Hurricane
- Brand New Man (Brooks & Dunn cover)
- 1, 2 Many
- When It Rains It Pours
Encore
- Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma
- Beer Never Broke My Heart
Images by Valerie Lee
Review by Nu Country TV producer David Dawson
