In the concert business, a big venue usually means a big show. That’s not the case, however, for unlikely country star Chris Stapleton, who filled U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Saturday night.
As usual, the 45-year-old Kentucky native offered up two rocking hours with few frills. Stapleton doesn’t dance, sprint around the stage or indulge in fancy light shows and pyro. He doesn’t even chat much with the audience. “There’s a whole bunch of you here tonight,” he said after “Second One to Know,” the third song of the evening. “Those of you who’ve seen me know I’m not going to do a whole lot of talking.”
Really, beyond the addition of some stadium-sized screens, Saturday’s concert felt a lot like Stapleton’s Xcel Energy Center gig in October 2022. Stapleton kept the crowd focused on his killer songs, which lean heavily into ’70s-style Southern rock and rootsy Americana. Indeed, it’s Stapleton’s skillful songwriting that has brought him to the place where he can sell out football stadiums.
The set list largely mirrored the one he played at the X and, for that matter, the one he played at his USBS debut in November 2021 when he opened for George Strait, another country star known for prioritizing songs over spectacle. The main difference was the addition of four songs from his most recent album, “Higher.” That included the show-opening “White Horse,” which had a vague whiff of Tom Petty to it and also earned Stapleton the two most recent of his 10 Grammy wins. (Unfortunately, Stapleton skipped “I Was Wrong,” one of the finest moments from his show at the X.)
Stapleton also did another three-song acoustic set that opened with his 2013 debut single “What Are You Listening To” (which he dryly noted made it all the way to No. 46) and closed with “Whiskey and You” (a song he wrote for Tim McGraw back in 2007). A new one, “Mountains of My Mind,” took the place of “Traveller” from 2022. Playing three slow, quiet numbers for a packed stadium was a risk and Stapleton himself thanked the crowd for actually listening. (They did, for the most part, with some pockets of noisy chattering here and there.)
Given that he’s known for his songwriting, it’s kind of funny Stapleton’s biggest hit is a cover, “Tennessee Whiskey,” a 1981 song written by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove and originally recorded by David Allan Coe. He closed the main set with a gorgeous take on it. He also thrilled with a run of songs in his second hour that included “You Should Probably Leave,” “Nobody to Blame,” “Cold” and “Midnight Train to Memphis,” a song he wrote for his first band, the bluegrass group the SteelDrivers.
While it’s fantastic that Stapleton has built such a large following, it’s unfortunate that meant he had to play a football stadium that’s notorious for its poor sound. The farther you get from the stage, the worse it gets. It kind of defeats the purpose of seeing a songwriter perform live when you can’t make out the words he’s singing.
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