It was a beautiful summer evening Friday August 7, 2015 when the Zac Brown Band came to Fenway Park for the first of their three 2015 dates here in Boston. When tickets went on sale back on March 13th, it was for only two nights. After selling out those two nights pretty quickly, they added a third show to their stop here in the Bay State.
Performing for us on the stage from 6:30-7:00 pm was the Muddy Magnolias. The two-female group made up of Kallie North and Jessy Wilson showed an eclectic variety of sounds from rock n’ roll and hip hop, to country and the blues.
After the ladies performed and then exited, a curtain was dropped down the front of the stage, so it could be set up for the main act of the evening. You could feel the buzz of excitement in the crowd as the time for Zac Brown Band to come on stage grew nearer. The light towers at Fenway, flickered and then went off. The crowd immediately erupted and the cheers became deafening, when the curtain was finally lifted and we got a glimpse of the Zac Brown Band. Zac Brown, himself, wearing a Red Sox cap, appeared on center stage and sang the first song of their nearly two and a half hour long set list of the evening, ‘Homegrown.’ After he completed the song, he thanked all of the fans for coming out. “What a beautiful night. Thank you for coming!”
The band soon went into the next tune ‘Uncaged’ and then into the Led Zeppelin cover, ‘Kashmir.’ The song allowed the audience to hear the very talented guitar playing skills of one member of Zac Brown Band, Clay Cook. Years ago, Clay spent time here in Boston at Berkeley College of Music. The perfect segway from Led Zeppelin was The Charlie Daniels Band, famous hit, ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia.’ The song was written by Daniels in 1979 and was influenced by the poem, The Mountain Whippoorwill, by Stephen Vincent Benet. The fiddling war of ‘Devil,’ ended and before Zac Brown Band performed their next song, ‘Castaway,’ Zac had this to say to the 30,000+ fans at the famous ball park:
“It’s great to be back home. Thank you very much. Three nights we are here Boston. We don’t get as much love from any other city in the world, right here, this is it. Thank you! Welcome to the Jekyll + Hyde tour. We just put out a new record. We are going to play some old stuff, we are going to play some new stuff. We’ve got a couple of surprises for you too.”
One of those surprises came after they sang ‘One Day,’ a song that Zac wrote for his “old lady.” We had the pleasure of a special appearance by Berkley’s own Reverence Gospel Choir. They joined the band on the tune ‘Remedy,’ a song that Zac says is “one of the best songs we have ever written.” The unbelievable harmonies and blend of the choir and the Zac Brown Band was majestic and a testament that all genres of music can meet to make a beautiful sound.
The awe-inspiring stage set up was one of the most memorable things we got to witness that evening. The graphics plus the interactions from the band made you feel as if you were right up there with them on the stage. During the song ‘Dress Blues,’ the screen projected an American flag waving. ‘Dress Blues,’ was originally penned by Jason Isbell, who wrote the song for his friend who had died overseas. It makes reference to the Marines’ formal dress of uniform, which unfortunately so many are buried in after returning home from war. The waving flag and the strong lyrics, made an impact on the audience but not as much as the appearance of the Marine in full dress blues who stood to the left of the stage on a platform saluting the crowd throughout the entirety of the song. During the final chorus of ‘Dress Blues,’ flashing on the screen, were the names and photographs in memoriam of those who were taken by the war.
Moving from the seriousness that the song portrayed, Zac Brown Band transitioned nicely into ‘Knee Deep,’ but not before he asked us “are you ready to take it to the beach?!” The fun island sounding song is the band’s favorite song to perform and was written in ten minutes while they were sitting, you guessed it, on the beach. This song was again an opportunity for the audience to experience the stages impressive special effects. The back screen was made to look like we were all riding on a boat across the ocean, while listening to a special summertime song. The final verse of ‘Knee Deep’ brought out the big cannons that shot confetti hundreds of feet into the air dropping thousands and thousands of colored pieces of paper that rained down over the audience.
Slowing things down a bit, the band next played a three song acoustic set. The band members all surrounded a grand piano with their instruments, which included guitars, the fiddle and a string bass. First performed was ‘Sweet Annie.’ The music video for ‘Sweet Annie’ included clips from band member Clay Cook’s wedding to his wife Kylie. The second song in the acoustic set was a Fenway Park favorite, ‘Sweet Caroline.’ Zac asked us all to “help us out on this one Boston.” Asking for help from the audience turned out to be a good idea. The fans did their part and sang it with passion and fervor, including the additional lines added by Red Sox fans many years ago. “Sweet Caroline, ba ba bahh… good times never seemed so good, so good! So good! So good!”
Returning to the stage and joining Zac Brown Band for the third song in the acoustic set, was Berkeley’s Reverence Gospel Choir. After performing ‘I’ll Be Your Man’ (a song for a daughter) that was introduced by Zac, “for my daughters and for all the dads and the daughters out there,” the band broke for a fifteen-minute intermission and for the second time that evening, the curtain was dropped down in front of the stage.
Fifteen minutes flew by, and before we knew it, the lights dimmed for the second half of the concert. Zac is known for changing up his hats throughout his shows, so gone was the Red Sox cap and in its place was a brown bowler hat. Appearing refreshed from their break the band immediately opened with ‘Colder Weather.’ The song, a fan favorite, soon became an all venue sing-a-long. ‘Beautiful Drug’ came next and then one of the best performances of the night, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ Having the opportunity to show off his versatile vocal talents, Zac outdid himself with his presentation of the Queen hit. Zac was all over the stage during the performance. He showed the audience how he was totally into the music and lyrics of the song, by his animated expressions and body language. It was a remarkable performance that will be remembered for a long time by those who were lucky enough to witness it.
‘Bittersweet,’ ‘Loving You Easy,’ and then ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’ were next performed. Zac said, “Tomorrow is our favorite song off the new record.” The catchy beach song ‘Toes’ was next followed by ‘Day for the Dead,’ a single off their current album, ‘Jekyll and Hyde.’ Brown introduced each of the band members by name during the song. “Show some love for my amazing crew and my amazing band.” ‘Chicken Fried’ completed the regular set for the band who then took a brief break before returning for a two-song encore. The encore included a Metallica cover, ‘Enter Sandman,’ and a deep cut off their new album ‘Heavy is the Head.’ Before leaving the stage and showing his appreciation for the last time Friday evening, the Zac Brown Band left the venue with these words, “Have a great night thank you, thank you for all the love. We’ll see you tomorrow night. Have a good night and be good to each other.”
If the Zac Brown Band put on half of the performance for nights two and three as they did on Friday night, then fans were in for an amazing show full of Zac Brown Band hits, some soon to be hits off the new album, and a variety of cover songs that show the gamut of their musical tastes and talents.
Concert review conducted by Lorraine Frigoletto, contributing writer for NECM. You can follow me on Twitter.
Pictures were from throughout the weekend.