On a stadium tour in support of his fifth album, this year’s The Great American Bar Scene, country superstar Zach Bryan hit a snag at his first of two Philly shows last night, battling it out with high winds, a heavy downpour, and an hour-plus rain delay to ultimately play a 22-song set at The Linc.
The atmosphere was hazy and humid around 8 when Bryan’s Oklahoma neighbors Turnpike Troubadours took the stage for an opening set, showcasing their own recent album A Cat in the Rain. (Fitting.) About a half hour into their performance, the skies opened up with a heavy downpour, and flood warning alerts began popping up on people’s phones.
The set ended and the announcement was made that the concert was in rain delay mode, with fans advised to take shelter. At The Linc, this translated into congested crowds on the concourse, packing in around the concession stands. Out in the open, revved up audience members could be seen ripping of their shirts, dancing in the rain, and sliding around the field. Shortly after 10, The Linc’s social media announced that the severe weather had passed, that gates for the show had been re-opened and Bryan’s estimated start time was now 10:20 p.m. (he was originally slated to go on at 9:15).
photo by Elie Pichanick for WXPN
WXPN contributing photographer Elie Pichanick was on the scene, and had this to say:
Upon stepping onto the field, the rain was coming down, although not as hard as half an hour before, when fans were evacuated until further notice. Puddles of water covered the floor as fans splashed around, dancing in the rain. Concertgoers had soaked through their shirts. The majority of them had not even brought a poncho to protect them from the intensity of the storm. The crowd of 60,000 anxiously waited for Zach Bryan to take the stage, after a lengthy and lightning-filled delay. While the circumstances were different from what Bryan had planned, with his backyard set-up, fans seemed just as excited as they had been three hours prior.
As the band approached the stage, screams echoed through Philly’s largest venue. For some fans, it was hard to separate their rain soaked faces from their tears of joy. Bryan took the stage around 10:30 – an hour and fifteen minutes past his set time. Lincoln Financial Field was immediately filled with pink smoke, and Bryan was smiling ear-to-ear, eager to put on the long-awaited first of two shows for the sold-out stadium. While fans’ cowboy hats had pooled with water, and ponchos had been soaked through, their excitement never waned. In fact, the screams were louder, the smiles were bigger, and the singing was that much more joyous.
The night went later than everyone expected, but Bryan’s set delivered: five songs apiece from his two most recent albums, and a robust dive into his back catalog, including his Maggie Rogers collab “Dawns,” live fave “Burn, Burn, Burn,” and his signature set-closer “Quittin’ Time” from 2022’s Summertime Blues EP. Check out more photos from the show in the gallery below.
Zach Bryan returns to The Linc for night two tonight, with Turnpike Troubadours joining him again, along with Levi Turner. As of this writing, the forecast calls for a 57% chance of showers in the early evening that calm down into cloudy skies as the night progresses. If you’re going, godspeed.
Zach Bryan | photo by Elie Pichanick for WXPN
Turnpike Troubadours | photo by Elie Pichanick for WXPN