History-making weekend at Comerica Park as Billy Joel, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, more arrive

In the busiest summer concert season in years, this weekend is an exclamation point.

Comerica Park is set to host three straight nights of concerts — including two that went on sale more than 32 months ago and are finally here after multiple pandemic delays.

Country star Chris Stapleton (Friday), piano man Billy Joel (Saturday) and hard-rock co-headliners Motley Crue and Def Leppard (Sunday) will take over the Detroit Tigers’ home for the first back-to-back-to-back shows in the stadium’s 22-year history. By the time the weekend wraps up, it’s likely that nearly 100,000 fans will have hit the venue over the three nights.

Tickets are available for all three shows, and other seats are expected to be released once the stage is completed and sight lines are established.

The ballpark began its transformation immediately after the Tigers wrapped up a Wednesday afternoon win against the Cleveland Guardians. It involved a crew of about 350, who worked through the night laying plastic flooring over the Tigers’ outfield and building the 10,800-square-foot stage with help from a crane and materials hauled in on eight semi-trailers.

Although the three shows are rolling into town with their own production teams and assorted bells and whistles, they’ll be using the same stage. Stapleton and Joel will also share a lighting and sound system, while the Motley Crue-Def Leppard tour will install its own gear Sunday.

“Our job was to turn this from a baseball stadium into Detroit’s biggest outdoor concert venue,” said Elmer Straub, vice president of entertainment production for 313 Presents. He watched Thursday as crews erected the first of the sound-delay towers that will relay music to Comerica Park’s stands.

Onsite planning started months ago, as production specialists from Live Nation, 313 Presents and the artists' teams walked Comerica Park to settle on technical specs.

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The setup includes 400 feet of bike rack-style gating and 110,000 square feet of plastic flooring. Crews will assess the turf’s condition after the weekend, and the outfield will probably get fresh sod before the Tigers return July 23, Straub said.

This weekend’s shows are the first of seven stadium concerts in Detroit this summer, including Comerica Park dates with Elton John (July 18) and Red Hot Chili Peppers (Aug. 14), along with Ford Field shows from the Weeknd (July 27) and Kenny Chesney (Aug. 20).

“There’s just something about a stadium show that creates additional excitement in a market,” said Dave Clark, president of Live Nation’s Great Lakes region. “It’s not just the bigger capacity. It’s the ambience, the skyline, the summertime, all of it. You’re not planting a flag on the beach — you’re planting a flag on the moon.”

Stapleton, who played two sold-out Pine Knob shows last summer, is rolling into Comerica Park on his All-American Road Show tour, joined by openers Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Marty Stuart and Madeline Edwards.

Joel’s Saturday concert is his first here since a Palace of Auburn Hills visit in 2014, and it’s his first Michigan stadium concert since his '90s pairings with Elton John.

Motley Crue and Def Leppard will be supported by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts plus Poison in a relatively early day of music set to kick off at 4 p.m. Sunday. Drummer Tommy Lee is back with the Crue after being sidelined by a rib injury. (Detroit-born Tommy Clufetos, best known for his work with Black Sabbath, filled in on several dates.)

Joel and Motley Crue-Def Leppard are two of the longest-standing shows on the Detroit concert docket: Both were announced in late 2019 and scheduled for the following summer before COVID-19 shut down touring.

They're all part of a bustling weekend for Straub’s 313 Presents, with Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre hosting shows from Halestorm, the Pretty Reckless, Third Eye Blind and Big Time Rush, and Meadow Brook Amphitheatre welcoming the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for a night of Harry Potter music.

But it's Comerica Park, notching its own venue record with the three-show weekend, that will rule the roost.

“When you look back at 2020, it was such a tough year for everybody, and the concert industry got hit hard,” said Straub. “This is several huge artists in one weekend, in one place. It really does make you feel like we’re back now.”

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Comerica Park preps for record-setting concert weekend at Tigers' home