Combs’ songs about cold ones get a warm reception
Country star sings praises to beer at San Jose show
Luke Combs is probably writing a song about beer at this very moment.
After all, it seems like that’s pretty much all he does.
OK, that’s an exaggeration. The country music star also shotguns beer, talks about beer, shows videos about beer, plays a guitar with an inscription about beer on it and holds onto plastic red Solo cups — which may or may not contain beer — like his life depends on it.
Yes, all of those things happened during Combs’ show Wednesday night at the SAP Center in San Jose, which was part of his “Beer Never Broke My Heart” Tour.
No, I’m not kidding. That’s actually the name of his tour.
And “Beer Never Broke My Heart” — which is what is inscribed on Combs’ guitar — is doing blockbuster business. The show in San Jose was filled to capacity, further underscoring that 29-year-old North Carolina native is the genre’s hottest new star.
Just consider that Combs — who still was writing songs in his mom’s kitchen just five years ago — already has scored six No. 1 country radio hits.
Five of those hail from his first and, at the time of the SAP Center concert, only full-length release, 2017’s “This One’s For You.” The remaining No. 1 is the tour’s namesake single, “Beer Never Broke My Heart,” which appears on the new album “What You See Is What You Get,” due in stores today.
The crowd was certainly fired up to see Combs take the stage, toasting fans with his trusty red Solo cup as his excellent, seven-piece backing band rolled through an appropriately rowdy version of “Honky Tonk Highway.”
Combs gave listeners plenty to cheer about during the roughly 90-minute main set, running through 20-plus tunes in a steady, unfussy fashion. He played the hits, showed some personality and kept the show on track. And he demonstrated his deep love and respect for hops and barley in a fashion that was extreme even by mainstream country music standards.
Combs doesn’t just sing songs about beer. He sings love songs to beer.
He celebrated his inability to control his drinking in “1, 2, Many,” explaining to the crowd that he often has a hard time stopping once he starts. Then halfway through the story, which comes across like a cautionary tale relayed at a rehab center, he stopped to shotgun a beer onstage.
And that drew what was possibly the biggest applause of the night from the crowd.
Later in the night, he made more friends during “Sheriff You Want To” as he shared what was in his red Solo cup with fans close to the stage.
But he had more to offer than just sudsy songs. Some of the best offerings included the heartbreaker “Must’ve Never Met You,” the nostalgic “Refrigerator Door” and his band’s covers of David Allen Coe’s great “The Ride” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son.”
The show was low on frills, but they would use the screen at the back of the stage to show a video about beer during “Beer Can,” arguably Combs’ most convincing cerveza serenade.
“I pick up a beer can,” he sang. “And get to feeling like Superman.”
He’d follow up with “Don’t Tempt Me,” which featured more beer videos, and then closed the main set with the tour’s title track, “Beer Never Broke My Heart.”
“There are a lot of things that have let me down,” he told the crowd. “There are a lot of things that have broke my heart. But one thing that has never broke my heart is a long-neck, ice-cold beer.”