SoFi Stadium
Luke Combs dropped his new album Fathers & Sons on Friday, and that same night — appropriately, on Father’s Day Weekend — he was in front of 70,000-some fans at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, to celebrate his love of family… and his love of beer too.
Ahead of performing a string of love songs written about his wife of four years Nicole, Combs said fans often ask him why he records so many romantic ballads.
“I still sing beer-drinking songs too. I still like beer-drinking songs,” Combs said to wild applause. “But I love my wife. I love my kids. And if it wasn’t for her, I’d be about five No. 1s short of where I am right now. So these next couple of songs are about her.” (For the record, Combs has scored 17 No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, so apparently he’d be down to a dozen without those love songs.)
Combs dedicated the newest song he performed, “The Man He Sees in Me,” to his two young sons: Tex, who was born on Father’s Day 2022 and turns 2 next week, and 10-month-old Beau. It’s the lead single from his new album, and it captures Combs’ drive to be a great dad while understanding that his kids will grow up and realize he’s not Superman (“One day between him leaving home and driving on my knee/ Maybe I’ll finally be the man he sees in me”). While the song was only released on June 6, he’s been playing it since April on his Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour.
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Ahead of the song, he talked about the release of his 12-track new album Fathers & Sons. “Thank you for listening to it,” he humbly told the crowd, wearing a Los Angeles Chargers hat on the home field of both the NFL’s Chargers and Rams. “If you listened to it, thank you. If you haven’t, I hope that you do.”
But just like he said onstage, there was plenty of time for beer-drinking songs too.
The final two tracks before his encore really drove that home, starting with Combs’ 2019 Brooks & Dunn collab “1, 2 Many.” More than halfway through the song, Combs was joined by actor Luke Wilson and Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler to shotgun a beer onstage. (Well, at least one of the Lukes shotgunned a beer; Wilson took a few generous swigs before chucking his Miller Lite can into the crowd.) And next up was arguably Combs’ biggest party-starter of a song: one of those 17 Country Airplay No. 1s, 2019’s “Beer Never Broke My Heart.”
Combs returns to SoFi Stadium for night 2 on Saturday (June 15). On Friday, he was joined by The Avett Brothers, Charles Wesley Godwin, Hailey Whitters and The Wilder Blue as opening acts, and he’ll have a full new slate of openers on Saturday night: Jordan Davis, Mitchell Tenpenny, Drew Parker and Colby Acuff.
Watch the Wilson and Butler moment below, along with a little taste of “1, 2 Many.”
Tucked into the side of Southern California’s new SoFi Stadium is a Palm Springs-inspired hideaway dreamt up by actor David Arquette and nightlife company The h.wood Group. The field level suite – called Bootsy Bellows at SoFi Stadium – is a truncated version of the West Hollywood bar by the same name (Arquette’s mother’s name) and more stylish than most sporting spaces. Decked out in velvet furniture, breezeblocks and gold-trimming, the suite is an elevated experience for NFL fans watching home teams LA Rams and Chargers, but the operators are stepping up their game for major concerts.
“No one’s really experienced something like that with the decor and everything, so it’s been very special,” The h.wood Group co-founder John Terzian tells Billboard about the reception to the suite. “If you can make people feel warm in a stadium setting, feel like they’re kind of in a living room, you’ve done a pretty good job.”
This summer alone, SoFi Stadium has hosted Twice, Morgan Wallen and Metallica, in addition to six nights of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour that just wrapped up a star-studded three nights. The h.wood Group has taken the growing demand for stadium concerts and not only expanded their presence at SoFi, but also made improvements over the past three years.
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“The first season, you could only order like a burger, chicken tenders and fries – standard stadium food. People were paying $10,000 for a table to come to a game, they don’t really just want to eat chicken tenders,” explains The h.wood Group co-founder Brian Toll. Going forward the stadium agreed to allow Bootsy Bellows to take advanced orders to deliver additional offerings like sushi platters and Tomahawk steaks.
The h.wood Group also expanded their seating options for concerts. Instead of being limited to their large suite, Bootsy Bellows has been able to take over more space along the sidelines. For concerts, Terzian says, they can run an entire sideline of suites and, depending on the show, add seats on the field for Bootsy Bellows designed pods. “We’ve extended [the space] so that you have this incredible experience where you have your own little section with a couch and a high top [tables] essentially on the field itself,” he says. “That was a massive thing that we did from last year to this year. It’s all about viewing experiences and things that we keep improving.”
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The ultimate appeal of the Bootsy suites, according to Terzian, is the level of accommodation. In a stadium that can hold up to 100,000 fans, The h.wood Group tries to simplify an overwhelming experience with an exclusive entrance, dedicated staff to get patrons to the suite and private bathrooms, as well as in suite bars and servers. The difference “has been our attention to handling any sort of talent that comes in,” says Terzian. “The whole idea is when you’re in there, you have your own bar, there’s a DJ going, there aren’t people asking for pictures. You have fun whether it’s with family or friends. It’s supposed to be a safe space.”
The Weeknd will be coming to HBO Max sooner than you think.
While his original series The Idol is set to premiere on the streaming platform in 2023, the superstar announced Thursday (Feb. 2) that his “Live at SoFi Stadium” concert special will arrive Feb. 25.
The Ethiopian-Canadian performer posted the concert special’s poster on his socials, which featured his masked persona clutching a microphone in one hand and raising his other against the blood orange backdrop.
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He originally scheduled two back-to-back dates at the Inglewood venue for his After Hours Til Dawn Tour in September, but The Weeknd canceled his second show in the beginning of his set after he lost his voice. The “Sacrifice” singer then rescheduled the shortened show to November and added a second date during Thanksgiving weekend.
The Weeknd’s last music TV special, The Weeknd x The Dawn FM Experience, arrived on Amazon Prime Video in February 2022, which served as a theatrical expansion of his last studio album Dawn FM that topped charts across the globe. Dawn FM follows his critically acclaimed fourth LP After Hours, which debuted and remained at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for four consecutive weeks.
His upcoming series The Idol, which The Weeknd is starring in and co-writing with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, will follow a female pop singer who sparks a romance with an enigmatic LA club owner who doubles as a leader of a secret cult. Starring Lily-Rose Depp, the show also features Troye Sivan, BLACKPINK‘s Jennie, Mike Dean and more.
See The Weeknd’s announcement below.
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