It must be hard to be humble when you’re standing in front of 55,000 music lovers, seemingly all of whom know every word to every single one of your songs.
Yet, Zach Bryan made a pretty good show of it on Friday (Aug. 15) at the Polo Field in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
“I never thought I would be playing after Noeline Hofmann, the Turnpike Troubadours and Kings of Leon — some of the best bands of all time,” said the pride of Oologah, Oklahoma, naming the three other acts on Friday’s bill. “Yet, here we are — because of you.”
Make no mistake about it, Bryan is a massive superstar — one of the biggest not just in the country genre, but in all of music. His career has absolutely skyrocketed since his major label debut, “American Heartbreak,” was released in 2022, and he’s now able to fill multinight stands at stadiums all around the U.S. and beyond.
Yet, Bryan has certainly not lost sight of how far he’s come in such a short time. And he brings a refreshing sense of humility and gratitude to everything he does on the live stage, routinely introducing songs with his “I hope you don’t hate it” tagline and repeatedly telling attendees that “we don’t deserve any one of you.”
On the flip side, Bryan has courted more than his share of controversy during his relatively brief time in the spotlight, drawing the massive ire of Swifties for comparing Tay-Tay unfavorably to Kanye West in a (what he later explained was a drunken) social media post and garnering tons of headlines for his very messy and public breakup with podcast star Brianna LaPaglia (complete with diss tracks from LaPaglia’s camp).
However, Bryan kept the focus on the music — and, again, being thankful — as he performed a terrific two-hour set of country-rock tunes for the huge crowd assembled for the seventh concert held at Golden Gate Park in just under two weeks.
Bryan’s performance immediately followed the previous weekend’s Outside Lands Music Festival, a three-day event featuring top hip-hop acts Doechi, Doja Cat and Tyler, the Creator, as well as other artists. And, of course, the whole Golden Gate Park party started with a trio of Dead & Company concerts celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead.
Obviously aware of those Dead anniversary shows, as well as the band’s long history with the park and the area, Bryan donned a cool Grateful Dead shirt for this performance — representing quite possibly the sole spot of tie-dye in a sea of denim in the park. (Actually, a couple of his bandmates appeared to be wearing Grateful Dead garb as well.)
Following Kings of Leon’s well-received set — which included an appearance by Bryan and the live debut of their collaboration “We’re Onto Something” — the headliner took the stage right before 7:30 p.m. and hit the crowd with the rowdy and rocking “Overtime.”
The 55,000-strong crowd immediately broke into song as well — intently and purposefully singing along as if each lyric had come from their own diaries — and they’d continue to do so through basically every number of this 20-plus song set.
Backed by an excellent band, which included string and horn sections, Bryan kept right on powering through such fan favorites as “Godspeed” and “Oklahoma Smokeshow.”
“I hope everyone is having the best Friday night of their entire lives,” he told fans. “Here’s to you, San Francisco.”
It was a first-tier party atmosphere throughout the night, as Bryan kept things fresh and rolling along, stopping on occasion to show his gratitude for this chance to play in Golden Gate Park.
“This is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and we are really glad to be here,” he said. “I feel really, really blessed this evening.”
The music didn’t register as country or rock — or, even, what we commonly think of as country-rock — but rather Bryan’s own unique hybrid of the three. The tunes are far more reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen than, say, Kenny Chesney — and, not coincidentally, it doesn’t sound out of place at all when you hear The Boss’ voice on the track “Sandpaper” from Bryan’s latest album. As far as modern country music goes, Bryan probably registers closer to the great Eric Church than to most of his other contemporaries.
The headliner proved to be very generous with the spotlight during his winning main set — calling Noeline Hofmann back to the stage for a duet on “Purple Gas” (which Hoffman wrote) and then bringing up Kings of Leon’s Caleb Followill to share vocals on “Bowery.”
But the best of the unexpected collaborations came when he invited a cancer survivor up on stage, after seeing the man holding up a sign requesting the chance to perform with him. They’d do “Heading South” — Bryan’s self-released first viral hit, recorded while he was still in the Navy — and they’d knock it right out of Golden Gate Park.
Bryan brought the main set to a close in uproarious fashion with the appropriately titled “Quittin’ Time.” But, of course, he wasn’t quite done yet and would return for an encore of “Revival” that was punctuated with a massive firework display in the foggy skies of San Francisco.
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