The first Spring Break on the Coast occurred in 2011. The lineup featured Randy Rogers Band, Eli Young Band, Kyle Park, and Micky & the Motorcars. Now, after being canceled in 2020 and split across two socially distanced nights in 2021, the show returned at full force in 2022.
Spring Break on the Coast is one of Corpus Christi and Concrete Street Amphitheater’s longest-running Spring Break traditions. Randy Rogers Band headlined the event up until 2018 when, after two years of co-headlining, Cody Johnson took over. Now, 4 years after Johnson took over and 6 years after being the last artist on the poster, Parker McCollum has taken over the show and sold out the amphitheater (When asked about an official number, Concrete Street just told me they were excited to have welcomed “thousands of country fans”). McCollum also said that the last show he “almost” played before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown was Spring Break on the Coast 2020.
Music for the night started with Slade Coulter, a Lubbock artist who is slowly but surely making his way up the ranks in the Texas Country scene. I had seen him before here on campus and it was fine but it was just a strange show if anything. He played to around 100-150 people, maybe only 10 or so really cared about what he was doing. This show, unfortunately, felt the same way however I did enjoy him more at this show than the one on campus, mainly because I think he’s gotten more confident and also because I like his music now. If you give him a few more years, I think he’s gonna be someone to watch out for. Speaking of someone to watch out for, Jacob Stelly took the stage after Slade set fire to it.
I’ve been to two Spring Break on the Coasts now and there’s something special about the artist that performs second. I can’t explain but both artists I’ve seen have always been extremely good and I leave the show a huge fan of them. The first year I went and the artist in that slot was Koe Wetzel and when he performed, it was like a tornado blew threw the amphitheater, I didn’t know what had just hit me. And while Stelly didn’t quite leave that same impact on me, he was easily the second-best performer of the night. His songs are versatile, he’ll go from a slow, sad song to an arena-rock song to even a few songs that I would dare call country-funk? Regardless, Stelly tore it up and I am very much looking forward to seeing him again should he end up back in Lubbock.
Mike Ryan took the stage shortly after Stelly and met all the expectations I had set for him. I’ve been a fan of Ryan’s music for a long time and have been waiting for the opportunity to finally see him and I’m not sure if I can say I’m glad to just given the crowd. It’s a really strange phenomenon when you go to a show and it seems the people there only care about the headliner. I’ve been to shows where opening acts aren’t that great but people still at least will clap and cheer after the songs finish. However, during Ryan’s set, I stayed quiet after one of his songs just as an experiment and the audience around me was too caught up talking to each other or looking at their phones to cheer for him. That’s my mini-rant, anyways, like I said, Ryan met my expectations as a live performer. He’s fun on stage, sounds fantastic live, and he had way more songs I recognized than I realized. I shocked myself with how I still remembered all the lyrics to Bad Reputation even though I probably haven’t heard that song in at least 3 years. He even ripped a few solos both on acoustic and electric guitars and as I’ve stated before, I’ll always give props to a singer or frontman who can rip a good lead.
After a quick set changeover, the lights dimmed and at 10:30 PM, Parker McCollum and his band took the stage while Post Malone’s Congratulations played through the PA. For the next 90 minutes, Parker truly won me over. I don’t want to say that in a way that means “I went into the show not a fan and came out a fan,” I’ve been a big fan of Parker for a long time. I remember hearing All Day on a Texas Country Station back home in Corpus when he first broke onto the scene and loving that song. I also think his 2017 album Probably Wrong is one of the best Texas Country albums of the 2010s and proved he was someone to keep your eye on. Nashville thought that too and he signed a major-label contract with Universal Music Group in 2019 and ever since then, I don’t know, I think he’s just been playing it too safe. While I did like his Hollywood Gold EP and his major label debut, Gold Chain Cowboy, there wasn’t anything that really blew me away or impressed me.
However, the album and EP both sold really well, he has two #1 hits on country radio along with a huge new fanbase and I’ll be damned if I tell you he couldn’t put on a show. Like I just said, I wasn’t necessarily crazy over either but the songs he performed from them translated so well live. Why Indiana and Falling Apart come to mind when I think of that. I can’t really explain it but these songs live just had a different energy live and having the crowd sing the choruses back really made things better too. That’s another thing I need to mention, I have never heard a crowd singing along to songs as ferociously as they sang along to Parker.
There were so many songs where it was almost hard to hear Parker because of how loud people were singing along. The biggest example of that was his performance of Like A Cowboy which led a sing along so loud you would’ve thought everyone had sheet music in front of them. Parker also was super impressed at the beginning of his song Drinkin’ where all he had to do was strum one chord and everyone yelled the opening “Sorry baby I been drinkin'” line back at him. As much as I want to go into depth about how awesome this crowd was, I do have to knock a few points off the board because Parker covered True by George Strait and it was met with crickets, one girl next to me even said “I’ve never heard this song before.”
I think the thing that impressed me most about Parker’s performance was just how much he owned that stage and he really did seem truly appreciative that the show had sold out. When I first saw that he was headlining, I was on the fence about whether he was a good pick, if the show was even going to sell well with him up top. Then over the winter he sold out a run of arenas in Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, and San Antonio which answered half of my questions. The other half was answered by his performance last week and I can confidently say that Parker deserves all of the success he has been getting. He is definitely an arena caliber artist and if he can put out another album that does as well as Gold Chain Cowboy did, he might be the next big country superstar.
I think my favorite part of the show might have been the ending run, kicked off by him performing his first #1 song, Pretty Heart which I already loved but is another song that translated super well live. Then he played what I still consider to be his best song, I Can’t Breathe which, hearing the crowd sing it back, it seems I might not be the only one who has that opinion. The chorus is made to be sang along to by thousands of people and the transition from him playing acoustic guitar to then pacing along the stage was an awesome payoff. After a short encore, Parker came back out and ended the show with Hell of a Year and Happy New Year. Hell of a Year live was super passionate and really fitting given how the last two years have been but I’m pretty sure the song will resonate with any year it’s sung in. And while Happy New Year didn’t close the show as strong as I thought it would, I still think there was no better way to end it.
So to reiterate, Parker is a fantastic live performer and it’s rare that I see someone perform who truly seemed as appreciative to be on stage as Parker was. Even if you are just a fan of his hits, I don’t see an instance where you can leave on of his shows feeling dissapointed. If you get the chance to see him the next time he rolls through your city, I can’t recommend it enough.
More information on shows and tickets to see Parker McCollum live can be found at https://www.parkermccollum.com/tour/. All photos and videos taken by Andrew Watters.
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