Lasers from nearby electronic acts lit up the sky above the glitter-covered faces of the sunburned festivalgoers who awaited the Thursday night headliner at The What Stage.
In the minutes before Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival’s first country headliner, sweaty ‘Roovians sang along to “Sweet Caroline.” With each “Ba! Ba! Ba!,” they moved further toward a night full of hits from Luke Combs.
The 35-year-old North Carolina native was met with a high-spirited crowd when his set kicked off at 9 p.m. on Thursday with “1, 2 Many.” Matching the crowd’s energy, Combs shotgunned a beer at the end of the song, tossing a Miller Lite can into the audience.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, ever since we booked this show, [if] when we walked out, if anyone would even be here,” Combs said from the stage. “But I can’t say thank you enough.”
Bubbles filled the muggy air and drifted onto the stage as Combs tore into the familiar notes of “When It Rains It Pours,” “Houston, We’ve Got A Problem” and Brooks & Dunn cover “Brand New Man.”
Combs filled his performance with surprises, including an instrumental cover of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and a band-led singalong to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Gimme 3 Steps.”
“I need some hot chicken-ass pickin’ guitar, dude,” Combs said, introducing “Loving On You” from the 2019 album, “What You See is What You Get.”
Combs invited Miranda Lambert to the stage to perform “Outrunnin’ Your Memory” before asking Lambert to take over the stage to perform one of her staple songs, “Kerosene.” Later in the show, Combs welcomed Jon Bellion to the stage for a pair of duets: “Why” and “Good Things Fall Apart.”
Comb’s cowboy hat-topped crowd bellowed what he called the trifecta – “Better Together,” “Forever After All” and “Beautiful Crazy,” all written about his wife, Nicole Hocking.
His face slicked with sweat, the singer encouraged fans to give their all for the final three minutes of his set as his band ripped into
country anthem “Beer Never Broke My Heart.
Returning to the stage for an encore, Combs told the crowd that his childhood favorite song was Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” which he had the opportunity to record and release in 2023. The once rowdy crowd became overly calm as they softly sang the lyrics back to the stage, occupied by Combs and his acoustic guitar.
Night one at The What Stage came to an end with a final surprise appearance from standout guitarist Marcus King, who played earlier in the day. Turning the country-filled evening into a rock show, Combs and King met their audience with Combs’ smash hit “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma,” from the blockbuster 2024 film “Twisters.”
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