Blake Shelton, Dustin Lynch give fans what they want, but few surprises, in Milwaukee show

On stage in Milwaukee Saturday, Blake Shelton at one point tried to calculate how many times he'd performed in town.

I'll paraphrase his answer: a crapload.

It was said as a point of pride and a bit of a boast. Shelton's been able to come to Milwaukee, er, loads of times, because he remains, more than two decades into his career, a superstar, carried far by charm, humor and a strong catalog that demonstrates his affection for traditional country music.

For his latest area appearance, as has been the case for several years now, he played one of Milwaukee's biggest venues, Fiserv Forum, and it was near capacity Saturday.

More: These are all of the arena, amphitheater and stadium concerts in Milwaukee in 2024

More: How Milwaukee became a must-play market for country music.

But all those visits also create a challenge: If you're going to keep coming back, how do you up the ante?

Shelton had that figured out — at his previous Milwaukee show.

It was the final night of his 2021 "Friends & Heroes" tour, an inspired concept that saw Shelton share the stage and his backing band with country stars from the 1980s and '90s — in that show's case, John Anderson, Tracy Byrd and Martina McBride. Throughout the night, the stars took turns on stage, culminating with all four of them playfully competing at night's end during an in-the-round performance. The setup gave Shelton several opportunities to hilariously feign a fragile ego, but, truthfully, he was in awe of these artists (as were his fans), which in turn drew out the best of him as a performer.

But with the "Back to the Honky Tonk Tour" that came to Milwaukee Saturday, Shelton is going back to a standard concert.

He still played a lot of songs — 26 of them — although the set, at an hour and 47 minutes, wasn't the three-hour musical feast that "Friends & Heroes" provided. Naturally, the lack of those guests was going to mean a shorter run time, but Shelton's band — six members Saturday, compared with seven last time — also wasn't given as much time to flex during songs.

Also, Shelton significantly, and surprisingly, scaled back on the charming comic banter that can make his shows such a blast and set him apart from his Music Row peers.

Not that the fans who filled the Bucks arena didn't have a fun time. They may have gotten fewer wisecracks from Shelton, but he largely gave them what they wanted and expected, including nearly every song he sang the last time in town.

Shelton the romantic dominated the night, whether he was sweetly making his lady the center of the universe on songs like "A Guy With a Girl" or "Doin' What She Likes," or singing moon-eyed at footage of his wife Gwen Stefani singing back to him for their duet "Nobody But You."

Fans also got to see Shelton the carefree, downhome party animal for "The More I Drink" and "Hillbilly Bone," and hear his hilarious sendup of an oft-played country music trope with "Some Beach," in which he juxtaposed idyllic scenes of paradise with vivid scenes of road rage and a dentist visit from hell. And there also was Shelton the outlaw, deliciously relishing the gritty George Jones prison-set classic "Ol' Red."

There was one actual surprise, a deviation from his last Milwaukee show: the return of his 2003 song "The Baby."

On Saturday, Shelton explained that he cut the song from his shows a while back because of the heavy subject matter. It's a heartbreaker about a mother's undying love for her youngest, a wild child, her "baby" — and how he is unable to make it home in time for her dying moments.

"By the time I got to her side, I knew she had been taken," Shelton sang with poignant pathos Saturday. "I softly kissed that lady/And cried like a baby."

For me, it was the highlight of the night. But it showed what happens when a reliable crowd-pleaser like Shelton deviates from the playbook.

Fans showed up for his latest Milwaukee show, and they're going to show up in big numbers for the next one. But when he played "The Baby" Saturday, a noticeable number of them showed themselves out to hit the bathroom or get a drink.

Dustin Lynch reminisced about first Milwaukee show opening for Shelton

Following a performance from initial opener Emily Ann Roberts, who Shelton once mentored on “The Voice,” Dustin Lynch asked a curious question during his 50-minute opening set.

“Who’s ready for Summerfest, Milwaukee?”

No Lynch wasn’t confused about what Milwaukee venue he was playing at Saturday. He was just trying his damnedest to cast away the cruel February winds in Wisconsin and bring a packed crowd to a summer state of mind.

Early on, back-to-back appearances of “Where It’s At,” “Ridin’ Roads” and “Tequila on a Boat” did the trick. He nearly ruined the feel-good vibes with the atrocious “Chevrolet,” a blatant jingle set to Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away” (grossly accompanied Saturday by pickup-truck-in-action footage).

But redemption was found via a jumping cover of the late Joe Diffie’s “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die).” And there was some sweet sincerity via ballad “Cowboys and Angels,” which was inspired by Lynch’s grandparents, who will celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary this year. Lynch also reminisced during the song about being amazed by the Milwaukee skyline the first time he saw it on Nov. 1, 2011, where he played that signature song for just the second time.

5 takeaways from Blake Shelton's Fiserv Forum concert in Milwaukee

• Sample banter from Shelton: "Let's agree on some things here about tonight. We are here for one thing, that is to celebrate country music, everybody. And drink, two things. What we are not here to do is vomit, pee in the aisles … be offended crybabies or talk about politics."

• Another element from Shelton's previous Milwaukee show that was sorely missed Saturday: fiddle player Jenee Fleenor, the first woman to win the CMA Award for musician of the year. A pity no other fiddle player was added to the mix Saturday.

• Shelton was a little light on jokes Saturday, but he had one funny bit in which he claimed Luke Bryan FaceTimed him earlier that day and questioned why there weren't more videos of crowd singalongs from Shelton's concerts on social media. "What kind of (expletive) calls and says something like that to somebody?" Shelton joked. "I'm already insecure when I get out on stage." Shelton then mocked Bryan's follow-the-leader, arm-waving stage antics. "I don't make you all do that stuff, it's stupid," Shelton said.

• During "I'll Name the Dogs" Saturday, there was a sweet moment where two strangers in seats near me fawned over each other's dog photos on their phones.

• During “Tequila on a Boat,” Lynch went on the lookout for three women in the crowd who could take shots with him and the band. But after a spotlight shined on the trio he selected, he saw they looked underage. “I’m going to go to jail,” Lynch half-joked. Some drinking-age women instead received the tequila, while the original younger ladies were given sombreros.

Blake Shelton's Fiserv Forum setlist

1. "Come Back as a Country Boy"

2. "A Guy With a Girl"

3. "Every Time I Hear That Song"

4. "Doin' What She Likes"

5. "Neon Light"

6. "Sangria"

7. "Gonna"

8. "I'll Name The Dogs"

9. "Mine Would Be You"

10. "Nobody But You"

11. "Happy Anywhere"

12. "Some Beach"

13. "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking"

14. "Nobody But Me"

15. "Home"

16. "The More I Drink"

17. "The Baby"

18. "Ol' Red"

19. "Austin"

20. "Hell Right"

21. "Sure Be Cool If You Did"

22. "Honey Bee"

23. "Hillbilly Bone"

24. "Boys 'Round Here"

25. "God's Country"

26. "God Gave Me You"

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on X at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Blake Shelton, Dustin Lynch give fans what they want at Milwaukee show