No Matter the Stage, Koe Wetzel Is The Night Champion

When Koe Wetzel and I sit down for drinks — Tito’s for him, Basil Hayden for me — before he takes the stage for his private album release show, he tells me he’s always loved being in front of a crowd no matter how big or how small. And that goes back to arena dirt when he was a kid growing up in Texas.

“I was the mutton bustin’ champion at the Mount Pleasant Rodeo for two consecutive years in the ’90s,” Wetzel says. “I’d get off and throw my cowboy hat in the crowd, and I’d do the Lane Frost wave. I was cowboyed-out: I had black chaps with red fringe, a little vest, and chaps and spurs.

“So, from a very young age, I’ve kind of been this entertainer.”

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After his rodeo wins, Wetzel continued to hone his stage swagger when he was in high school and college, playing four-hour sets at honky-tonks all over the Lone Star State. “That’s how I came up. That’s how I made my gas money and my beer money,” he says. “I played a bunch of Texas country stuff like Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen and Stoney LaRue. Back then, they were my idols, the people that I looked up to. And those guys took me under their wings.

“But I’d also throw in some occasional Garth Brooks and George Strait. I grew up on ’90s country music. So, I’d do ‘Friends in Low Places’ or ‘The Dance,’ because I could read the room and I knew what the vibe was. Like, ‘That dude at the bar is drinking a lot of whiskey, so I’m sure he wants to hear some old sad country.’”

He still clearly knows how to read a room, bringing the same brand of Wetzel energy tonight to the down-to-earth dive bar Carol’s Pub on the north side of Chicago. With just one sideman, the acoustic show might not be what his loyal fans expected, but they’re enamored of this other storytelling side of Wetzel. He even throws in some “sad cowboy shit” from the new record — his sixth studio album — and the room of about 200 erupts with the thundering applause of an arena gig.

“I feel really weird in these smaller intimate rooms — kind of run out of shit to say,” he tells the audience. “But I’ll drink with you. I’ll run amok with y’all. But I can’t guarantee everyone’s safety.” It’s an apt dose of honesty for the fans who’ve been drinking signature Wetzel cocktails throughout the show, like the “Circus” Water, made with Corazón tequila, cold-pressed watermelon juice, fresh lime, agave, and sea salt.

Koe Wetzel’s brand-new album, The Night Champion, is out now. His next tour stop is June 20 in Lewisburg, West Virginia, at the Wild Trails Festival.

Find more info and tour dates at koewetzelmusic.com.

Set list from Koe Wetzel’s June 10, 2026 show in Chicago:

“Circus”
“When I Was”
“Hurts Like You”
“Dollar and a Bottle”
“The High Road”
“Surrounded”
“When I’m Gone”

PHOTOGRAPHY: (Cover image) Aaron Shriver; (All others) Lars Juveland