Hardy Brings it, the mockingbird & THE CROW tour in Green Bay, WI
November 30th 2023 Hardy’s tour named the mockingbird & THE CROW sells out the Resch Center in Green Bay with over 7000 fans in attendance.
The show started out with Country artist Dylan Marlowe taking the stage at 7:30. Playing his songs ‘You See Mine’, ‘I’ll Keep The Country”, and ‘Dirt Road When I Die’ to name a few. The audience really took to his performance and he was a great opener to an amazing night of live music. Dylan’s set lasted around a half hour.
Next up was country’s rising star Lainey Wilson. In the crowd many of the young ladies were dressed in Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottom country style. Bell bottom pants and straight brimmed cowboy hats. At one point Lainey Wilson pointed out it was one of her favorite things to see everyone dressed up in the style at concerts. She definitely had the large majority of the arena as fans with the large roar of the crowd when she took the stage. Lainey played hits such as ‘Watermelon Moonshine’, ‘Heart Like A Truck’, and ‘Wildflowers and Wild Horses’. Lainey
Wilson remarked how great it was to be on tour with headliner Hardy. She also said that if you haven’t been to a Hardy show that this was going to be one of the best shows you’ll ever see, and that Hardy is an amazing performer. Lainey Wilson put on a great show herself which I really enjoyed watching her and her bands energy and stage presence. With a great setlist and sound was definitely a memorable set.
Now the headliner Hardy really put on an amazing show just as Lainey Wilson said he would. Now going into Hardy’s show I had no idea what to expect. I’ve heard of Hardy and know he’s been winning a lot of awards lately. Also I’ve never heard any of his music at all so he was completely new to me. I must say right from the start I was really feeling his music and loving the whole production. This show is not only a great set of music from his catalog. The show had fast strobing lights at times and a very good amount of pyrotechnics, flames shooting up behind the band and fog shooting up around the stage also three large video screens behind the band. Two on the sides with live feed and the large middle screen with different visuals on it. There’s no doubt the crowd loved him and his performance, I seen people dancing, singing and just totally getting into the music and his performance. The set started out with song ‘the mockingbird & THE CROW’ along with flames shooting up during the chorus of the song. Now one thing I was surprised of is Hardy is not just a country sounding artist but he also mixes in a lot of rock to even hard rock almost metal screams in in some of his music. Which after seeing his concert I can really see how this sets him apart from other artists in country music, he has this genre bending style. Which likely brings in rock fans along with the country fans.
Later on in the show Hardy stopped to talk about how he had to cancel some shows awhile back. He said he got a lot of support from the fans, but a few haters. Hardy talked about how he had to take some time off to figure out what was going on with himself. Turns out he had a panic attack for the first time and ended up in the hospital to figure out what was going on. Then he had another and found out he was also suffering from anxiety. He talked about how anxiety is real and a lot of people think people are just faking. I could tell in the audience a lot of people were in the same place as him. Hardy also talked about when he first started out playing shows how no one would have cell phones out being on them or recording the show. He asked everyone to please put phones away for one song, and how great it used to be without phones and everyone just enjoying the show. Hardy then went into playing his ‘Screen’ which became one of my favorites of the night. Later on he also talked about his tour bus accident that happened just over a year ago, and how for the first time he thought he was about to die, and how scary that was. He then dedicated his next song ‘Give Heaven Some Hell’ to everyone in the audience loved ones who have passed on.
Another highlight of the set was at one point Dylan Marlowe came back out and he and Hardy both sat down on chairs on stage each with an acoustic guitar and each played a song that they wrote, but was recorded by another artist. After the two solo acoustic songs then the two of them sang ‘Red’ together. After that seemed to be one song everyone was waiting for, Hardy’s duet with Lainey Wilson for the hit ‘Wait In The Truck’. Which was totally a highlight of the night.
Hardy’s set was very diverse with styles from country to some really heavy hitters like ‘Radio Song’. Other songs from the set were ‘A Rock’, ‘The Redneck Song’, ‘.30-06’, ‘Truck Bed’, and ending the night with ‘Sold Out’. The sound was great, Hardy’s band sounded great and were also great performers with a great stage presence. From all the pyro and fog shooting up, to Hardy’s great vocals and songwriting it really made this a great show. Which kept me wanting more and has me listening to Hardy now on my own. He is a really great artist and performer, I totally recommend seeing him live if you have the chance. Especially if your already a fan, I went in not knowing a song and now love his music. I look forward to seeing him again someday!
