Morgan Wallen: One Night At A Time GLASGOW🤠🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Hey y’all, it’s me, Chloe. 

Hope y’all have had a lovely week! I certainly have. Last week for me was filled with country music which, I can’t lie, is a pretty damn good week. It started with Tenille Arts on Wednesday night at my absolute favourite live music venue, Saint Lukes (keep an eye out on here and my socials for the interview with Tenille) followed by Morgan Wallen at the OVO Hydro on the Thursday night. 

I know I’m a week late in posting this, but Morgan Wallen’s highly anticipated Scotland debut was, personally, nothing short of incredible. While he was around 20 minutes late to the stage, he still sang a whopping 22 songs, including songs from his debut album, the Dangerous album, and of course his latest album, he also teased fans with the eagerly awaited and unreleased Love Somebody; which I have not been able to get out of my head at allll. Just release the song already! I will list the setlist at the very end too, hopefully I haven’t forgotten any. 

We’ll start with ticket pricing, as there was a lot of controversy around this. For those who don’t know, there’s a thing called dynamic pricing, which is a pricing strategy in which the cost price of a certain product surges due to the demand. Which is particularly relevant in ticket sales, especially with ticketmaster, as there will evidently be a demand for 90% of all event tickets when they go on sale. Don’t get me started on the horror show that was Oasis general sale. For this gig in particular, I personally witnessed standing tickets starting at around £106.00 and then increasing to £265.00 thanks to dynamic pricing. Tickets for Morgan Wallen were relatively expensive anyway, with the standing tickets being the cheapest at the face value cost of £106.00. I personally went for seated tickets and these were £146.00 each, I think that is the most I have ever spent on a concert, apart from Country to Country, but that’s weekend passes. Let’s not even go into the VIP package costs because I saw some of these going for over £300.00 each! Although, VIP ticket holders did get an exclusive MW orange hat which I would have definitely purchased had this been regular merch. I’m sure they got some other bits and bobs included but I was desperate for that hat! The venue also ended up actually releasing some more standing tickets on the day of, a couple of hours before doors opened, which is usually very unlikely. I have seen speculation from others that this could be related to the costly dynamic pricing resulting in the show not being a sell out, despite there being no tickets available up until the actual day. Unfortunately, the pricing meant the gig was not accessible to everyone, I am very lucky to be able to afford the luxury of going to concerts, however, I feel a lot of artists should adopt the “Luke Combs Approach” (as I am now officially naming it) where he always ensures that there are tickets accessible to all by having tickets start at $25 for most shows, regardless of the venue or demand. As I said, I am very fortunate to have been able to attend, and pricing aside, I truly do think it was worth it. 

While his American tour had some incredibly famous features during his Broadway Girls walkout, and there was a lot of hope and speculation about Morgan potentially bringing out the likes of Lewis Capaldi or Paolo Nutini for his Glasgow walkout, however, unfortunately for us, there were no additions to this. Compared to his walkout at other concerts, Glasgow also felt a little, shall we say unenthusiastic? However, the Dublin one looked much worse. Is he maybe just bored of doing the same thing despite it being one of the most iconic moments to fans? Was it the jet lag? We’ll let him off as the rest of the show was brilliant. 

Country music has now become an incredibly popularised genre and a lot more people are listening to it these days. This was quite apparent at the Morgan Wallen show, and unfortunately, not for particularly good reasons. You would always be able to go to a country music gig and make friends, know you’re safe, and be able to enjoy the music within the community that is fans of country music. However, I witnessed multiple people fighting during the concert, notably during what is arguably one of the most emotional songs on the setlist – Cover Me Up, so not exactly a ‘get riled up’ song, especially when the whole crowd has their lights in the air… I also witnessed many of the Hydro’s plastic cups being thrown into the crowd and visibly hitting fans on the head. For those unfamiliar, the hydro’s new plastic cups are reusable and pretty hefty. I certainly would not be happy to be hit off the head by one of them. Another thing I happened to witness in the bathrooms, were some extremely drunk and passed out young girls with their smuggled in drugs hanging out of their bags. I felt like I was at TRNSMT instead of one of the biggest country gigs for Scotland this year. Thankfully, it did not stop me from having a great night, however, I know it definitely stopped some, and to me, that is not okay and something that is unfortunately becoming increasingly more apparent at country gigs. 

Morgan’s ‘I Had Some Help’ duet with Post Malone broke multiple records in the music industry, making history upon the release as the first single to debut #1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts as well as the Billboard Hot 100. So it comes as no surprise that the crowd went absolutely wild for this one. Unfortunately, whilst many rumours spread and speculation grew that Post Malone would be joining him on stage in Glasgow for this one, they were evidently untrue. I have to say I am not sure where these rumours even began, probably by someone as a harmless prank, however it was a rumour that I’m sure broke many fans hearts. Although, in the nicest possible way, y’all must be pretty gullible if you believed it. Post Malone or not, Morgan had the crowd hooked and partying from the first note.

My personal favourite song that was on the setlist that we had seen beforehand was Sand In My Boots, and I was almost convinced he had cut it from the Glasgow show as he sang it much later in the setlist than previous shows. Alas, I saw the piano being dragged out and I physically grabbed my fiancées leg like “this is it, he’s doing it, it’s really happening”. I also may or may not have cried during it, and I very rarely cry at concerts, lil wimp over here. BUT I noticed multiple other people around me in tears, so thankfully I was not alone in my wimpyness (is that a word? Who cares it is now.)

One final comment before I give y’all the setlist and head on outta here cause damn this ramble do be long. While I stated earlier that Morgan was around 20 minutes late to the stage, after he had finished performing, and the house lights came on, and the crowds started to head on home, this man stood on that stage for around 30 minutes signing the merch of the lucky fans down the very front. It was very sweet and humble of him, as we all know, he wouldn’t be anywhere without the fans. One thing I will note though, if he signals to you to throw something for him to sign, perfect, throw away, if he does not, please don’t just chuck stuff at him, it will not get signed and he will ignore you. As he should. I saw a video the other day of someone at another show literally throwing their phone off of him whilst he was performing, safe to say that phone got launched across the stage, and I absolutely do not blame him. He’s human after all, just another one of us. 

Setlist:

1. Broadway Girls (walkout song)
2. Whiskey Whiskey (hype song)
3. Ain’t That Some
4. I Wrote The Book
5. One Thing At A Time
6. Everything I Love
7. You Proof
8. 7 Summers
9. I Had Some Help
10. Cover Me Up
11. Lies Lies Lies
12. Where I Find God (with Larry Fleet)
13. Sand In My Boots
14. Heartless
15. Cowgirls
16. Chasin’ You
17. Love Somebody (unreleased)
18. Wasted On You
19. This Bar
20. More Than My Hometown
21. Whiskey Glasses

ENCORE:

1. Thinkin’ Bout Me
2. Last Night
3. The Way I Talk

Over and out,

Chloe x