It was a big weekend for country music last weekend. While the folks in Michigan were celebrating the "Faster Horses" festival at Michigan International Speedway, the folks down in Ohio were having their own party.
The Buckeye Country Superfest has been going on for just about five or six years now. It used to be a two day affair, but after Covid cancelled it a couple of years ago, they have scaled it back quite a bit.
By the fifth year of the Superfest, we decided it would be cool to bring our nieces along. I bought tickets, but unfortunately, Covid threw a wrench in all of that.
When they announced that the Superfest was coming back in 2022, I quickly snagged some tickets for the five of us.
While the lineup wasn't quite as spectacular as past years, I was happy to see that Luke Combs was the headliner.
Looking at the lineup of artists at the festival in Michigan, I have a feeling Ohio was late to schedule and they missed out on some of the great acts that performed up north.
It was still a great evening of music and I am going to share it with you now.
We started the morning watching our oldest niece play what will probably be her last rec league softball game before she heads off to college in just about a month. It was around noon that a storm started rolling in, and we were a little concerned that it might impact our festivities that evening.
Luckily, the storm blew through and we ended up having a beautiful if not a little hot evening at the Ohio State University football stadium.
The show was started by an up and coming artist named Morgan Wade. She was supposed to start her set at 3:30 after the doors opened at 2:00. Due to the weather moving through, everything got pushed back and she didn't actually start playing until after 4:00. I don't know if it is her lack of experience or the fact that she likely had to cut her set short, but she was kind of robotic in her performance.
There wasn't much movement and she didn't interact with the fans at all. There wasn't much talking in fact, just one song after the other. My sister in law commented that she didn't even appear to be smiling while she was up there.
Despite that fact, she was still pretty good and you should check her out on Spotify if you get the chance. I would categorize her music as sort of an Emo Country vibe (if you can even imagine that combination).
I've gotta tip my hat to the stage crew, they did a great job of switching things over between sets. Most likely due to the revised schedule from the storms. It was the shortest I think I have ever waited between bands.
As each new act went through their set, the stadium started to fill up.
Pro tip: if you ever have to go to Buckeye Stadium, get your seats in the odd sections on the press box side. If you look in the photo above, you will see that we were in the shade. Those folks on the other side of the stadium were in full sun with no reprieve until about 9:00 at night (for the upper decks).
By the time Kameron Marlowe hit the stage, it was well past his original 4:40 start time. It didn't really matter though, because he brought an energy that gave some life to the crowd and provided us a glimpse of what we were in store for the rest of the evening.
He interacted with the crowd and you could tell that he was genuinely happy to be there. This is a pretty big stage for some of these artists. Even though they have had some success on the radio, playing to an arena is a whole different ballgame than some of the other venues. Marlowe proved that he can hold his own on the big stage.
Like I said, with each passing act, more and more people started filling in.
The third act was a young man named Zach Byran. He is a singer/songwriter that I was shocked to find is more popular than I would have thought. While I was familiar with his music coming into the show, I didn't think many other people would be. Boy was I wrong.
With the advent (and popularity) of artists like Ray Lamontagne and Mumford and Sons, there has been a boom of similar singers with a growly gravely voice that have gained a lot of recognition. Zach Bryan is one such artist.
As I said, I was shocked by the number of people in the crowd singing along with every single one of this songs. He had an infectious energy that really captivated the crowd. Next to Luke Combs, he was probably my second favorite act of the night.
I am going to include a video for one of his most popular songs below. If you like what you hear, I have to tell you that he is even better live. He puts a lot of extra passion into the lyrics that you don't get on the album versions of the songs.
If you ever see that Zach Bryan is coming to a venue near you, I highly recommend you drop everything, clear your calendar, and get tickets. I'd see him again in a heartbeat.
I've got two rants in this post, and the first one has to do with the merchandise counter. Towards the end of the third intermission while they were setting up for Cody Jinks, I decided to go get some shirts.
I swear I stood in line at the "merch" counter for probably 40 minutes waiting to get a couple shirts. They have everything displayed right on the wall with numbers so you can pick what you want. I could see it all the way back at the end of the line, so it boggles my mind how people can get up to the counter and not know what they want.
I had shirts in hand and payment rendered in less than a minute, sadly, that wasn't the case for most of the other people. Again, it's not too hard to decide what you want ahead of time to speed up the process for everyone else.
As a result, I missed pretty much the whole first half of Cody Jinks set. While my wife and the rest of our group weren't the biggest fans of his music, the rest of the stadium felt otherwise.
Similar to Zach Bryan, it was shocking the number of people who knew the words to every single one of his songs and were singing along to them.
Jinks has that kind of old school country outlaw feel to him reminiscent of Waylon Jennings and the other Highwaymen. I dig that kind of country music, so I thought he played a great set (what I saw of it). The rest of our group was just ready for Luke Combs to come on.
To be fair, my wife and our younger niece are not big fans of crowds. It was hot and there were a ton of people packed into the stadium by now. Places like this are all about putting as many butts in the seats as possible so they can sell as many tickets as possible and make as much money as possible.
What I am saying is, it was "a lot".
I don't know as though I would specifically pay to see Jinks again, but if he were opening for someone, I probably wouldn't complain. I might even go see him at one of the bars in Nashville if they ever invited him to play there (which they don't, it's that outlaw country thing I guess).
During the intermission as they were setting up for Luke Combs to finally take the stage, the fans were surprised with a performance by some of the Ohio State marching band. Being a Michigan State fan, I was less than impressed, but the crowed seemed to love it (silly buckeyes).
They did a couple of their songs to get the crowd pumped up and then they left the stage.
Remember I said I had two rants? Well the second one involves the pair of ass-wagons that you see in the lower left corner of the image above.
In Michigan, as I have mentioned in the past, it isn't uncommon to have people all around you smoking weed at concerts. Even though it is legal for recreational use, you still aren't technically supposed to be smoking it in public. Enforcing it would be like trying to rope the wind, so they don't really even try.
In Ohio on the other hand, it isn't legal, so people have to be more covert about it. Unfortunately, these two guys failed miserably at that. About a quarter of the way into Luke Combs set, they lit up a small joint and were passing it back and forth.
Now, I'm not one to "harsh someone's mellow", but when you are blowing pot smoke back into my 15 year old nieces face, then I kind of have a problem with that. I'm actually shocked
My point is, I don't care if you smoke, but be aware of your surroundings. If your smoke is blowing back into the face of a child, maybe you find a different place to do it. Hell, bring some edibles next time. Then everyone wins!
Luke Combs finally hit the stage about 45 minutes past his original 9:00 start time. It didn't stop him though as he played well past the usual cut off of 11:00 PM that most venues have due to noise ordinances and things like that.
Luke Combs is pretty awesome if you ever get the chance to see him live. This was my wife and I's second time seeing him and it was quite different than the first time. The first time we saw him was before Covid and it was in a much smaller venue.
He was popular at the time, but in between then and now his "star" has burned really bright. I think there were about 60,000 to 70,000 people in the stadium and every single one of them was singing along with every single song (including me).
It was a non-stop barrage of ballads and beer drinking buddy songs. Luke seems like a really down to earth guy, and I think that is part of what draws people to him. He started out as a bouncer in a bar, talked them into letting him sing a couple nights a week, and then he was discovered and the rest is history.
His songs are about the things he loves, beer, his family and friends, his new wife, and now his new child.
There is something really raw and personal about the songs that makes them so special. You really get the impression that he wasn't quite ready for all of the sudden attention, but he is doing his best to not let it change who he is at his core.
Towards the end of the show, they brought a young lady on stage who I think was part of the "Make a Wish" program. Her wish was to see what it feels like to be in a concert. She got to sit next to Luke as he sang a song and had the audience sing back to them during the chorus. I hope it was a really special time for the young lady.
Although it was a different format than past years, it is safe to say that Buckeye Country Superfest did not dissappoint! I look forward to seeing what the lineup is going to be next year and maybe if one of these tokens pops, I will be springing for a private suite! At the very least I might buy a couple extra seats to give us more room to spread out!
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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or