OAKLAND — Not even the I-880 chicken and beef special could stop Zach Bryan from playing to the biggest crowd of his life.

While a semi crash on the freeway spilled raw meat all over the place and led to backups that left some stuck for hours, the self-made country and folk rock superstar’s concert at Oakland Coliseum went off without a hitch. The Quittin Time 2024 Tour is Bryan’s biggest tour ever, but it consists mostly of two-night stands at arenas nationwide. Oakland is one of a select few stadium dates. After all, he had already headlined the considerably more intimate Oakland Arena last August.

A lot has changed since then: A new album, a surprise EP with his friends Bon Iver and Noah Kahan, a Grammy win for a collaboration with Kacey Musgraves, a car crash, a temporarily lost cat, and any day now, another new album. Not even the Oklahoman’s publicist knows when (I asked). Zach Bryan is calling audibles left and right.

But first, there was the matter of the Oakland show, where the Navy veteran debuted his just-released single, “Pink Skies,” and performed several other new tunes.

“I’ll be honest; this is the biggest crowd I’d ever played for,” Bryan said between songs, profusely thanking so many fans for existing on this planet.

Also many times, he stopped to check that attendees were doing well, and that “I hope you don’t hate” the song that would follow. Obviously, he needn’t have worried about that. Every song was a winner (be it his rock-oriented material, his balladry or his straight-up twangy country songs), and his entire performance was expertly paced. He played nearly two hours but it felt like less than one. Leave ’em wanting more.

He performed mostly within one contained part of a large stage in front of a massive video screen; Bryan’s show stood out from his arena concerts in that it was not “in the round.” That kept him and his very talented band—including a fill-in fiddler (often playing the secondary star), because the band’s regular fiddler had just become a father days earlier—at the front of the stage. Stringed lights ran from the stage to speaker towers, and that along with the video was the extent of the production. Bryan has done this enough to know he can get away with venues this large on his and his band’s talent alone.

Zach Bryan growled a “hello,” and the band kicked off with “Overtime,” one of five or so songs from his self-titled 2023 album. Set against grainy black and white images of a farmland storm, the rocker set the tone. He and the band followed it up with the moody and melodic “Open the Gate,” from 2022’s American Heartbreak, the album that put him on the map and fast-tracked him to superstardom. That album also got a lot of love.

When Bryan slowed the pace, on songs like “God Speed” (from 2019 debut DeAnn), “Tourniquet,” “Hey Driver” and the hit “Burn, Burn, Burn,” the audience stepped up, delivering powerful singalongs. “Fifth of May” featured terrific guitar interplay by the band, with the fill-in fiddler, Hannah Cohen, singing and zagging through the others. She also had the concertmaster role on “Oklahoma City.”

Along the way, Bryan and co. threw in barn-burners like “Condemned,” “Oklahoma Smokeshow” and the bouncy “Heavy Eyes.” “East Side of Sorrow” jumped back and forth between forlorn and euphoric. And on “I Remember Everything,” the Musgraves collab, thousands screamed along.

With slicked back hair and resting eye twinkle, the charismatic Zach Bryan conveyed what he was feeling on these songs on a large scale.

There were several new tunes as well, starting with the title track of his next album. “The Great American Bar Scene” was twangy and homey, with him singing some parts with vibrato, a bit like Elvis. The 28-year-old explained how he wrote another new one, ballad “28,” about being content in life. The biggest curve ball was the debut of “Pink Skies,” a elegiacal tune during which he also played harmonica.

“We’re probably gonna mess this up,” he said beforehand. The band did not mess it up.

After closing the main set with the driving “Quittin’ Time,” Bryan had one more surprise up his sleeve, taking a golf cart to a smaller stage near home plate for a rousing encore that included an extended jam session on “Revival.”

Folk-rock band (and former RIFF cover act) Mt. Joy preceded Bryan with a 30-minute set that highlighted the band’s rock and pop roots. This included tempo-swapping psychedelic Southern rocker “Lemon Tree,” breezy mid-tempo tune “Sheep” and moody rocker “Dirty Love,” which had dramatic keyboard part builds.

The band’s keyboardist, Portland, Ore.’s Jackie Miclau, added much texture, drama and emotion to the songs.

Mt. Joy began “Let Loose” with discordant guitar noodling, but before long the song sounded like something by the Grateful Dead. It included a snippet of “Old Town Road,” too. The band threw in some humor along the way, introducing light ballad “Bathroom Light” as being “about falling in love in the bathroom.” Singer-guitarist Matt Quinn showed he’s a baseball fan, too:

“They haven’t seen spirit like this in this stadium in a long time!” he declared.

After the upbeat “Highway Queen,” folky “Astrovan” and suave “Julia,” the latter of which included parts of “Ain’t No Sunshine” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” the band closed with fan favorite “Silver Lining.”

Americana singer-songwriter Levi Turner opened the show with a 30-minute set of his own, performing the wistful “Eleanor,” riffle-tinged “Allergy Season” and a newer, unreleased song possibly called “Out in California.” The uptempo “Breathe” built to an orchestral-sounding release. The highlights, however, were songs I couldn’t identify. One was a twangy tune with the humorous and relatable lyric, “Get your cold-ass feet off mine.” The other sounded like it was about to become an Afro-pop jam until a fiddler joined in.

 

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter. Follow photographer Steve Carlson at Instagram.com/SteveCarlsonSFand Twitter.com/SteveCarlsonSF.