Koe Wetzel proves he can 'sang' at sold-out Bridgestone Arena concert

All the "cuz's" showed up to Bridgestone Arena ready to party with country rocker Koe Wetzel.

Decked out in cut-off sleeves exposing tattoos, camo ball caps and jerseys, the sold-out crowd traded backyard coolers of Busch Light and PBR for an evening celebrating "The Night Champion" on Aug. 8.

"Nashville, are you f***ing ready?" Wetzel bellowed as he strode the stage shredding his guitar. The audience responded by thrusting fists and beers into the air as columns of fire shot toward the ceiling.

Antler trophies, speaker stacks and a golden chandelier framed the stage. The backdrop recalled the East Texas woods where Wetzel spent nights coon hunting with his father and grandfather, Raymond Wetzel. Winning dogs earned the designation "nite champion,"

a tradition that gave Wetzel's sixth studio album its name.

Wetzel’s gravel-burnished voice ripped through staples including "Fuss and Fight" and "Forever," then softened around the edges for newer material. Across the arena, couples wrapped their arms around one another to dance, while others headbanged and threw up rock-on hands.

Wetzel moved between hard-rock muscle and surprisingly smooth vocals. The biggest contrast came before "Good Die Young." He slipped into the opening verse of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," revealing a pop instinct beneath his Texas-grit delivery. He carried the iconic melody with surprising ease.

"He can sang," a woman in Section 2 on the floor said, intentionally bending the grammar and dragging the "saaaaang" to emphasize her point.

Wetzel — who has built a career on hard-charging songs about hangovers, heartbreak and bad decisions — did not attempt to tidy up his between-song banter. In a black Johnny Cash T-shirt and Ducks Unlimited cap, he traded jokes with the crowd. Before launching into "Feb. 28th," one of his best-known songs, he offered a deadpan confession: "Y'all might disagree, but I hate this song."

He shouted out the scene that raised him: "I got to shout out my guys and gals down in Texas and Oklahoma making that Texas Red Dirt scene still happen, man."

Then he waded into dangerous territory in Tennessee: football. He raised a toast to the Dallas Cowboys winning the Super Bowl. A couple of middle fingers went up. A few boos rang out.

"If that makes me get my a** whooped on stage, it's totally fine," he laughed. "And the Cowboys have let me down more than a handful of times, so cheers to both of them." He later joked about the unlikely prospect of the Cowboys facing the Tennessee Titans.

During "When I'm Gone," a lime launched from several rows back on the floor and nailed Wetzel in the chest. He barely flinched and finished the song before calling out the unexpected projectile.

"Y’all ain't drinking out there, are you, Nashville?" he said. "I just got hit in the chest with a lime, so I guess that's a yes."

He scanned the crowd for the culprit.

"Was that you, mama?" he asked, before spotting someone else. "That you, cuz?"

Wetzel tossed the lime back toward the crowd and accidentally hit another fan.

"Go to the merch stand, you can get some free merch," he said with a smile.

The exchange captured the unruly, but magnetic charm Wetzel has built a career around, but the artist standing onstage at Bridgestone is in a different place from the one who spent years chronicling excess and self-destruction. Even as he joked about doing drugs out of sight of security or kids and mused about legalizing marijuana in the Volunteer State, he showed that he remains the mercurial ringleader of a fun, rambunctious circus determined to seize the moment.

"The Night Champion," his sixth studio album, finds the 34-year-old looking back at those years with a clearer head. When he spoke to The Tennessean ahead of its June 12 release, Wetzel described himself as the best version of himself: engaged to longtime partner Bailey Fisher, a father to daughter Woods and grateful he survived what he dubbed "the night side" of himself.

His career hasn't slowed with the introspection. Wetzel has 1.1 million Instagram followers and 1.4 million TikTok followers. He recently teamed with Ella Langley to release "Jaded" as her hit "Choosin' Texas" continues its domination at the top of the charts.

The Night Champion World Tour continues Aug. 12 in New York and returns to Tennessee for a Sept. 10 stop in Knoxville.

Setlist:

• "Fuss and Fight"
• "Good Times"
• "Circus"
• "Forever"
• "Surrounded"
• "Nine Lives"
• "Good Die Young"
• "Time Goes On"
• "When I'm Gone"
• "Drunk Driving"
• "The Man"
• "Ragweed"
• "Feb. 28th"
• "Sweet Dreams"
• "Sinner"
• "Feel Better"
• "Damn Near Normal"
• "Creeps"
• "Hurts Like You"
• "Something to Talk About"
• "High Road"

Bryan West is a music reporter at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Koe Wetzel proves he can 'sang' at sold-out Bridgestone Arena concert