BY SYDNEY HARP
Photo Credit: Spidey Smith
On Thursday night at Nissan Stadium, a crowd of around 50,000 gathered to see Morgan Wallen. As excited as I was to see Wallen take the stage, I was just as interested to see what energy the 3 openers would bring. Lauren Watkins, Nate Smith, and Bailey Zimmerman were the supporting acts.
I was curious as to how an artist like Bailey Zimmerman who started his music career in a non-traditional way would perform for a stadium crowd. You do not have to wait for my opinion – I was impressed.
His set opened with a video where Bailey is arguing with a girlfriend about having to go chase his music dreams. In the video he stated, “this is what I’ve got to do” and that’s just what he did.
There was no lack of energy when Bailey came running out for his first song “Religiously”. Somehow while running around the stage, he was able to keep this song heartfelt and emotional as the crowd sang the words back to him. It was inspiring to watch Bailey soak up the moment in awe. You could just tell he was jittery and excited to be there. I mean, who wouldn’t be?
Many of Bailey’s songs included guitar solo moments with his band where Zimmerman would headbang his trucker hat off his head while strumming an electric guitar. These were a great display of his endearing and goofy stage personality. Somehow, the band made each song in the setlist seem like their last. Each one having an even bigger ending. It kept us guessing and engaged.
A highlight of this set was when Bailey sang his first #1 song, “Fall in Love”. Every person around me was singing so loud. I think that this was a great song to see how far he has come. There is so much discourse around TikTok artists and how some believe that it is unsustainable to expect them to perform at the level of ‘traditional’ artists. Here, Zimmerman proves them all wrong. From the screen to a crowd of 50,000 you could feel the story as he sang it.
Bailey did not neglect the crowd for one second during his 45-minute set. While singing he was constantly interacting with fans and making sure they were seen. If there is any benefit to an artist like Bailey, it is that he knows how to value the loyal fans who got him to where he is. When he closed out his show, he threw his shirt to a fan in the pit and flexed before running off stage.
Luckily, we were able to see Bailey one more time during Wallen’s set when he got onstage to sing “Up Down”. In his eyes you could see the moment when dreams came true, and how thankful Bailey is to have fought for this dream. I cannot wait to see what Bailey Zimmerman does next.