Making a grand return to Aotearoa just over a year after selling out Spark Arena, Luke Combs rocked Eden Park and made history as its first country headliner.
Despite his 2023 Spark show selling out in just minutes, a double Eden Park run was always ambitious. Even though demand wasn’t as frenzied this time, what the big man delivered was nothing short of extraordinary.
With a stacked support lineup featuring Lane Pittman, Mitchell Tenpenny, and Jordan Davis, early arrivals on Friday afternoon were treated to some of the genre’s best. Davis’ Buy Dirt stood out as fans shuffled in, eagerly anticipating Combs’ performance.
When he finally emerged, donning an All Blacks cap and holding a red cup, Eden Park transformed into a honky-tonk bar on Nashville’s main strip. Combs and his band launched into Must’ve Never Met You, signalling a setlist designed to please fans of both new and old material. He mentioned this was his first show in three months and that he was nervous until the Auckland crowd put him at ease.
As someone who missed the Spark show in 2023, I was eager to hear my favourite Luke Combs tracks live—and I wasn’t disappointed. His extensive catalogue was impressively covered in just under two hours.
Following the opener with another heartfelt crooner, She Got The Best Of Me, the energy quickly picked up with Lovin’ On You and a surprise appearance of Honky Tonk Highway—a rarity in his recent live sets, absent from the 2023 Spark show. My partner gleefully showed me an unanswered DM she sent Combs in 2023, begging for this track to make the cut.
While some of Combs’ crowd banter was a bit hard to make out from where I stood (a friend joked about needing subtitles), I caught him encouraging fans to support his boys by getting their songs on the radio—a noble sentiment.
A Shania Twain/Train/Dierks Bentley medley sent the crowd into an impromptu line dance, and Eden Park truly came alive by the halfway mark.
Love You Anyway was a singalong highlight, proving my theory that by the third chorus of any country song, the lyrics are ingrained in your brain—even for first-timers like my flatmates.
The lights dimmed for another emotional moment with Beautiful, Crazy, followed by the night’s biggest singalong: Combs’ rendition of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car. My flatmates knew that one.
As the set wound down, the energy ramped up with an electric sequence of Cold As You, When It Rains It Pours, 1, 2 Many, and Beer Never Broke My Heart—complete with a shoey in the middle.
The encore trio of Better Together, Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma, and The Kind Of Love We Make sent everyone home happy and left me eagerly anticipating night two.
If you’re lucky enough to attend Saturday’s show, arrive early, pack your best plaid shirt and cowboy boots, and prepare for a night of dancing and singing. Don’t expect to wake up with your voice on Sunday morning. Country music forever.
Luke Combs' Eden Park setlist for 17 January 2025:
Must've Never Met You
She Got the Best of Me
Lovin' on You
Honky Tonk Highway
Brand New Man (Brooks & Dunn cover)
One Number Away
Houston, We Got a Problem
Remember Him That Way
I Ain’t No Cowboy
Going, Going, Gone
Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? / Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me) / What Was I Thinkin’
Where the Wild Things Are
Dive (Ed Sheeran cover)
Love You Anyway
Forever After All
Beautiful Crazy
Fast Car (Tracy Chapman cover)
Hurricane
Cold as You
When It Rains It Pours
1, 2 Many
Beer Never Broke My Heart
Encore:
Better Together
Ain't No Love in Oklahoma
The Kind of Love We Make
