10/03/2025

Chris Stapleton – Spark Arena : March 9, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

It’s show #2 of a two-night stand at Auckland’s Spark Arena as Chris Stapleton brings his All-American Road Show Tour to New Zealand.

Both shows have been sold out and already there have been many words written about Friday’s concert, so I’ll try night to repeat what has already been said, which is, essentially, it was a great night for Country Music fans in Auckland.

I can’t argue with that.

Stapleton has been writing and recording great songs, first for others (like Kenny Chesney, George Strait and Josh Turner) and for himself starting with the bluegrass band The Steeldrivers and then solo with his Traveller album in 2015.

Since then, he’s appeared on Saturday Night Live, won a sling of CMA Awards, acted in Game Of Thrones and collaborated with Taylor Swift. All that while he and his wife, singer Morgane Stapleton produced and are raising 5 children.

Whew, I’m exhausted, just typing that.

So yes, Chris Stapleton is finally playing in Auckland and yes, Spark Arena is packed to the rafters.

Marcus King

But first we must sit through a set with the relatively unknown Marcus King Band. King is from Greenville, South Carolina and he and his band have made a couple of albums with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye label.

King and his band come on strong, like a modern –day Lynryrd Skynyrd by way of The Allman Brothers Band. In fact, they close out their set with an excellent version of the Allmans’ Ramblin’ Man, perhaps in tribute of Dickey Betts, who died last year.

But it was the previous 45 minutes of Marcus King originals that got my attention. Songs like the hard rocking opener The Well and the soulful Beautiful Stranger made me stop and take notice. The man can sing and play guitar and his band is tight.

Oh yes, and Willie Nelson’s long-time harmonica player, Mickey Raphael sat in on a couple of tunes. How cool is that?

I have reason to believe that King played a longer set tonight than the previous evening and we were all better for it.

Chris Stapleton

With The Band’s Up On Cripple Creek blasting through the PA, Chris Stapleton and his band were ready to ride after a break respite for drinks and such.

The couple next to me were there because Stapleton’s version of Tennesse Whiskey was their wedding song. The recent bride was the bigger fan, giving a running commentary to her hubby throughout the 2 hour + set. Fortunately, I could tune her out when I want to, but to be honest, she was fairly entertaining.

And so was Chris Stapleton…although not overly so.

Ol’ Chris prefers to let the songs speak for themselves, so there is little between-song chatter other than the usual “Hello, Auckland!” and “Are you having a good time?”

Stapleton informed us early on that, “Your job is to have as much fun as possible and our job is to play as much music as we can”.

That meant 26 songs over the next 2 hours and 15 minutes.

The setlist was the same as the previous night’s with a few exceptions.

The solo segment featured a chorus of What Are You Listening To?, Stapleton’s first song to garner any radio play…”it shot straight up to #46”… along with a full reading of Your Man, the first song he wrote for someone else that became a hit…in this case, Josh Turner.

We also got A Simple Song before the band came back on.

The encore was completely different to last night…three songs, instead of two (this was the final night of the tour) including Maggie’s Song, Where Rainbows Never Die and Sometimes I Cry.

The final song was worth staying up for as Stapleton gave a very impressive vocal performance, perhaps the strongest of the night.

Also notable…Mickey Raphael was also part of Stapleton’s band…the chemistry and eye contact between Chris and Morgane…and the fine pedal steel playing of Paul Franklin.

I do admit that I was getting a bit antsy at about the 90 minute mark…perhaps the set could have been shorter…but I don’t know what I’d cut out.

So there you go, Country Music is alive and well in New Zealand…actually it sounds like Country Rock to these ears!

Marty Duda

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