Review & setlist: Morgan Wallen embraces his brand at Gillette show, but fails to elevate his material

What a jerk Morgan Wallen is.

This is his brand, not a critique. He is sufficiently aware of it to call a song, album, and tour I’m The Problem. During his first of two nights at Gillette Stadium on Friday, he performed the song in question right beneath a video montage that documented his numerous public outbursts of assholedom, such as flipping the finger at Saturday Night Live, breaking COVID protocols during the height of the pandemic, and other such incidents.

And it was the topic of many of his hits, both overt and covert. For Wallen, being an unrepentant pain in the ass is simply excellent business and not a liability.

Although he is skilled at being a jerk, he is less skilled at transforming that into visually striking art. In contrast to his country-asshole predecessors like Toby Keith, Wallen’s arrogance stems from a sense of entitlement and grievance, a sense that he has been wronged or denied what is rightfully his. Wallen added a sense of vengefulness to the song “Last Night,” which was about the person being addressed simply being unable to leave the singer. Keith may have delivered the song with a hint of arrogant inevitability. He sounded like a man with a chip on his shoulder when he sang “No way it was our last night.”

Naturally, that chip has helped him break out of the country ecology and become a full-fledged pop star, and his enormous success has greatly justified his sleeveless swaggering. Up Down’s submetallic lurch on four guitars, aided by Corey Kent and Zach John King as openers, caused the entire stadium to bounce, while Miranda Lambert, the Cowgirls’ duet partner, helped provide some equilibrium. Additionally, Wallen summoned some of his absent collaborators’ stumble-clowning and did a fantastic job, even though Post Malone didn’t make it a hat trick by appearing for I Had Some Help.

Sadly, Wallen was unable to maintain that level of friendliness by himself. Not only was he hurt, but he was also acting meanly as he fixed his baritone bray-whine on Kiss Her In Front Of You. The similar pattern was used in I’m The Problem, with the addition that he placed the entire blame for his wrongdoing on someone else. Wallen continued to lard I Got Better with an Ain’t I a stinker? wink despite the light and breezy background.

Songs that were meant to be moments of connection instead came across as cynical. Sand In My Boots, which is essentially a Zac Brown ballad, was as plainly earnest as Wallen could be, and he made his way to a small stage that was set up on the back of the field in an apparent attempt to heal the rift that had grown between him and his audience since he began playing enormodomes. Even if the fingerpicking on I’m A Little Crazy was subtle, the subsequent remark, “But the world’s insane,” minimized his own shortcomings and once again placed the blame on others.

Wallen’s musical style offered some interesting departures from the norms of country music, which was appropriate given his mainstream fame (and perhaps even a factor in it). Pop and rock of the 1980s were quite prevalent: Wallen’s live debut of I Ain’t Comin’ Back was like the soft AOR from the middle of the decade, and the Luke Combs-ish This Bar brought back the glittering anthems of U2 and the Waterboys. Love Somebody was neon-soaked and Quarterflash-y, while TN ran on guitar lines reminiscent of The Long Run-era Eagles (the least-country period of the most country-embraced rock band). Kick Myself ran on the smooth glide of the New Romantics. Additionally, several of the tracks featured the dry clicks of electronic percussion that are typical of hip-hop from the past 10 or so years.

However, Wallen himself was unable to elevate the content above the depressing, hammering crawl upon which so much of his material was based, and intriguing does not often equate to entertaining. If it weren’t for the fight he was preparing for in one of the lines, it might have just as well been Maroon 5 or OneRepublic, rock bands that successfully blended for pop acceptability. He ended with the halftime boom and outward-facing charge of The Way I Talk. Pure Wallen was that one.

Zach, the opener With a softer and gentler tenor rasp, John King played in a sandbox that was similar to Wallen’s. With his gritty, tighter, and harder rasp, Corey Kent demonstrated an expansive definition of what could be considered country music in songs like “This Heart,” “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” (a guitar quote from Ain’t My Day), and a faithful and complete rendition of Oasis’ “Champagne Supernova.”

Miranda Lambert showed how to cover a good deal of conceptual and emotional terrain without the contradictions showing, even though her subheadlining act didn’t last an hour. The slash-twang revenge snarl of Gunpowder & Lead, which is her entry into the substantial canon of great abused-women country anthems, is the culmination of her versatility, which ranged from the feather-light freedom of Bluebird and the gentlehearted warmth of The House That Built Me to the bust-it-up snap and sneer of Geraldene and the organ-driven frat-rock of Little Red Wagon.

Setlist for Morgan Wallen at Gillette Stadium August 22, 2025

Doesn’t that make me kick myself?Love Someone You Proof 20 Cigarettes I Got BetterDarkness Until LightDon’t cover me up (Jason Isbell cover) and kiss her in front of you.I’m a bit insane.My boots are covered in sand.Up Down (with Zach John King and Corey Kent)(With Miranda Lambert) Cowgirls(Post Malone cover) I Got Some HelpI am not returning to TN.Considering Me This BarBeyond My HometownMy DesiresGlasses of WhiskeyI am the issue.Last night, ENCOREThe way I speak, just in case