Luke Combs, Midland & More

As the temps heated up on Sunday, Treaty Oak Revival’s explosive concoction of rock, country and shades of punk and Emo on the Palomino Stage was even hotter. In its Stagecoach debut, the band kicked off their set with the title track to their 2023 album, Have a Nice Day. “How loud can we f–king get on a Sunday afternoon? This is for anyone who wakes up tomorrow with a big f–king headache,” said lead singer Sam Canty.

From there, they kept up the good times-ratcheting songs, including “Missed Call” and “Happy Face,” continuing to rile up the packed crowd with fan favorites like “No Vacancy,” “Bad State of Mind,” and finally “Ode to Bourbon,” with no shortage of singalong moments between them.

As ‘90s country sounds continue to be a sweet spot for contemporary country fans, Tracy Lawrence brought a slate of bona fide ‘90s country songs that have endured to his afternoon set on the Palomino Stage. He played longtime favorites “If The Good Die Young,” “Texas Tornado,” “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” and the mighty “Time Marches On,” which fans heartily took over for Lawrence in singing the chorus to close out his set.

He’s still in fine voice, and his years of playing to every size of crowd have forged an easygoing performance style that keeps the music front and center. And he kept the crowd’s love of classic country in mind, paying tribute to late country legends by performing Kenny Rogers’s “The Gambler,” Charley Pride’s “Kiss An Angel Good Morning,” Joe Diffie’s “John Deere Green” and the Charlie Daniels Band’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” 

American Idol winner-turned-country radio mainstay Scotty McCreery has made no secret about the enormous role his wife has played in his life and his career, and her presence was felt throughout his stellar Mane Stage performance on Sunday. Her most memorable mention came when McCreery played “It Matters to Her,” which he called her favorite of his love songs, and asked the audience to guess which line in the song she loved the most. (As the audience correctly intuited, it was the one about how guys should just shut up sometimes and listen to what their women have to say.) — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

“Well, we have to play that song,” Goo Goo Dolls lead singer Johnny Rzeznik commented with one song to go in the band’s packed Palomino Stage set. “They’ll kill us if we don’t!” As everyone in attendance no doubt guessed, That Song was “Iris” — the Dolls’ 1998 power ballad smash that has proven so enduring, it hit a new peak of No. 43 on the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA chart just this past week. Indeed, the teens and 20-somethings in attendance were belting about not wanting the world to see them just as loudly as their elder-millennial counterparts, making for one of the most deafening crowd singalongs of the whole weekend — and allowing Rzeznik & Co. to live to play another day. — A.U.

Texas band Flatland Cavalry brought its fiddle-laden, piano-inflected brand of country and Americana to Stagecoach’s Mane Stage Sunday night. The group is celebrating 10 years since their debut EP, Come May, and gave a deep dive into their canon of songs, including “Three Car Garage,” and their first song to be certified Gold by the RIAA, “A Life Where We Work Out.” They also offered the fiddle-driven “Stompin’ Grounds,” swinging from that into a fleet-fingered version of the gospel classic “I’ll Fly Away.” Being from The Lone Star State, they also nodded to the lasting influence of George Strait, performing a rendition of Strait’s “All My Ex’s Live in Texas.” The outfit’s polished, laid-back sound was a perfect vibe as the sun began to set on the final day of Stagecoach 2025. 

If Jelly Roll was king of guest collaborations on Saturday night, Midland did their best to win that crown on Sunday night. They welcomed country hitmaker Tracy Lawrence, while bluesy singer-guitarist Marcus King joined for a cover of Brooks & Dunn’s “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” MacKenzie Carpenter for a sizzling version of “I Wish You Would,” and Noah Cyrus for “Put The Hurt on Me.” During their closing number, they also welcomed Shaboozey to join the party. 

It was the trio’s fourth time playing Stagecoach, and they soaked in every moment of playing before the massive sea of concertgoers. Though lead singer Mark Wystrach noted he had been under the weather, the band’s top-notch performance and brand of retro-inspired country proved an ideal soundtrack for the balmy California evening, with the massive crowd swaying and dancing to songs like “Playboys,” “Burn Out,” “14 Gears” even a cover of Jerry Reed’s classic “East Bound and Down.”  

The band also used the massive Stagecoach platform to not only spotlight a song they wrote in the early days (“14 Gears”) but also debuted an unreleased song (“Glass Half Empty”). It was clear the group was taking in the massive crowd and the back-and-forth volley of musical camaraderie with the audience, most notably with the massive singalong that was the closing “Drinkin’ Problem.” — J.N.

While Luke Combs couldn’t compete with Midland (or Saturday night headliner Jelly Roll) in terms of volume of guests for his Mane Stage-closing Sunday night set, he did certainly make the three artists he did bring out count, each in different surprising and satisfying ways.

First up was Bailey Zimmerman, who he’d been teasing the new “Back Up Plan” with the past week. Zimmerman not only came out to perform the not-yet-released song, but helped reveal that the two were actually filming the video for the song at least partly at that very performance. There’s no official release date yet for that one, but no rush — it certainly sounds like it’s going to be a sizeable hit, so we should plenty of opportunity to hear it a whole lot in the not-distant future.

Then came the most unpredictable guest(s) of the day: Joel and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte, who he brought out to perform their 2003 pop-punk smash “The Anthem.” It was surreal to hear one of the biggest and most mainstream stars in country music sing about being “just a minor threat,” but Combs was clearly having so much fun that the enthusiasm became infectious. The Madden Bros. also stuck around after that to help repay the favor on Madden’s own “Where the Wild Things Are.”

Lastly, the most momentous: Garth Brooks, one the most legendary country musicians ever to hail from Combs’ Oklahoma home state — or from anywhere else for that matter — came by to bless Combs’ set-closing rendition of his signature singalong “Friends in Low Places.” Brooks and Combs led the audience in the final-verse singalong — of course including the unfit-for-radio “you can kiss my ass” line — before calling it a night, with Brooks shouting Combs out as a “future Hall of Famer.” Hard to argue with. – A.U.

Even after wrapping his own headlining set, Luke Combs wasn’t done for the night. As the Backstreet Boys neared the climax of their own officially weekend-closing performance at the Palomino Stage, the familiar strains of the guitar intro to “I Want It That Way” started to play — but were then met with the unfamiliar sound of Combs asking if he was your fire and one desire. Combs’ presence on the pop staple was surprising but ultimately highly welcome, as he brought the same buzzing enthusiasm to the Backstreet set as he did to the on-stage collaborations from his own set. After the crowd went predictably nuts for the all-time classic, the group brought up the possibility of a BSB/Luke Combs collaboration one day — but Combs didn’t answer, as he was already halfway out the door, perhaps looking for yet another stage to grace with his collaborative presence. — A.U