I can assure you, practically no one was more excited by the news of Zach Bryan’s With Heaven on Top Tour making a stop in Lincoln Nebraska. I literally cried out of pure joy when my mom surprised me with tickets. To see the live performance of my favorite album of Zach Bryan thus far accompanied with one of my favorite bands, Kings of Leon, as the star lining opener, was honestly a dream come true. The forever chased perfect concert was becoming a reality just before my eyes.
The date was marked on my calendar for months, and I had been looking forward to it for even longer. My outfit was perfectly curated and my cowboy boots were decked out in ribbons. To say I was excited would be a severe understatement. I was absolutely ecstatic. With this being said, I would say my actual concert experience can be summed up by one mediocre phrase: it was fun while it lasted.
Driving down to Memorial Stadium with my best friends blasting the songs we were going to hear live in a mere two hours, I was on top of the world. With this, I had the misfortune of turning around to be met with an ominous wall of clouds, and a radar of pure red. However, surely the protective “Omadome” would keep my concert experience preserved, right?
I could not have been more mistaken.
A simple overview of my actual concert experience is necessary in order to truly express my utter disappointment regarding the Memorial Stadium performance or lack thereof for that matter. The concert was supposed to begin with openers promptly at 7:00 pm. With repeated weather delays given the pouring rain, rolling thunder, and cracks of lightning, the stadium doors did not even open until 10:30. Even with the doors opening the monstrosity of a crowd, prevent my friends and I from even stepping foot on dry land until 11:00. That is a horrid accumulation of three hours hunkered down in cars and one hour of wading through mud as my cowboy boots slowly filled with water.
With all honesty, I was pretty much unfazed by the weather, until it was announced that due to the weather delays neither my beloved Kings of Leon nor J.R. Carroll would be performing. I was utterly crushed. Songs “Sex on Fire”, “Use Somebody,” and “Pyro” were permanently denied blessing my ears, and I still hold resentment writing this now.
To say that my concert experience following that great disappointment was completely ruined would be untrue. I still absolutely screamed every lyric of every song Zach Bryan performed. Arm in arm with my best friends singing the music of our souls, I was having a spectacular time. My belting was unfortunately cut short with the dreaded crack of lightning just above our heads. With the cursed bolt of electricity the band was forced to skip six whole songs and skip to the concert closer “Revival”. This moment, however, marks one of the times that come few and far between where I welcomed the rain. The combo of the down pour from the sky, the bolts of lightning, and screaming my heart out to 20 minutes of Zach Bryan’s “Revival” made me a lifelong memory. It was electrifying.
All in all, I truly think Zach Bryan did a great job performing amidst all of the challenges his team faced, however I do believe the entire process of dealing with said challenges could have been handled in a better way. For instance, attendants only got half of a concert at that for the ticket prices ranging from $200-$600. I personally would greatly appreciate a partial refund given the physical and emotional toil myself and other attendants faced over the course of the night. Not to mention, I can attest to almost the entirety of the stadium flocking to a mere two merch sights at the concert’s conclusion, where I encountered the most disorganized jumble of people cutting to get their desired piece of insanely overpriced merch. Was the concert t-shirt I got really worth the $60, hour and a half line, and intoxicated people falling all over me during the course of my wait? No, probably not. Is it one of my most treasured possessions now? You are darn right it is.
