In just under three years, Zach Bryan has gone from playing the Fillmore Minneapolis nightclub to the biggest stage in town. Saturday night, he filled U.S. Bank Stadium to the rafters with a confident, often compelling and surprisingly loud performance that suggested he has yet to hit his peak.

The 28-year-old’s remarkably swift ascent is all the more notable given that he did it outside the traditional Nashville path to stardom. Indeed, he began his career while still in the Navy, self-releasing his music online to an ever-growing audience. In late 2021, he was honorably discharged after eight years of service, hit the road and hasn’t stopped since.

That year, he played the Basilica Block Party and the Fillmore, which he mentioned twice during Saturday’s show. He sold out Surly Brewing Festival Field in 2022 and Target Center the following summer.

While he is signed to Warner Records, it’s clear Bryan’s the one calling all the shots, as he’s successfully crafted a career out of highly personal numbers that lean heavily into heartache and sadness. He’s also exceedingly prolific and has issued 85 songs over the past two years, across three albums, two EPs and a pair of standalone singles. (That said, he could use some editing, as his records tend to get repetitive the deeper you get into them.)

In a nod to a famously prolific Minnesotan, Bryan took the stage to “When Doves Cry” and jumped right into “Overtime” in a big and booming arrangement that set the pace for the evening. Rather than let his intimate songs get swallowed up by the size of the room, Bryan and his versatile band amped them up in every aspect, turning even the ballads into stadium (country) rockers.

Bruce Springsteen’s acoustic “Nebraska” album is an obvious influence on Bryan’s music and he’s clearly borrowed a thing or two from the E Street Band in terms of live performance, which was evident Saturday night in songs like “Open the Gate,” “Oak Island” and “Oklahoma Smokeshow.” (Not only did Bryan get the Boss to sit in on his song “Sandpaper” from his latest album “The Great American Bar Scene,” Springsteen joined Bryan onstage in Philadelphia for a pair of songs earlier this month.)

Bryan and company played on a long, sparse stage with a giant video screen behind them that stretched from one end of the stadium floor to the other. To help recreate the neighborhood/dive bar vibes of his music, strings of outdoor patio-style lights stretched above crowd.

From the start, Bryan has shown strength as a live performer and Saturday it felt like he had gained an even larger sense of confidence, both with his stage presence and his voice. (His trick of substituting Minneapolis or Minnesota into his song lyrics did get old pretty quickly, though.)

One can’t help but wonder, however, if he’s taking proper care of that voice. More than ever before, he slips into a gruff shout and barks out lyrics like Cookie Monster. During “Dawns,” he almost took it too far, with a sing/shout that was almost violent. That kind of singing can be tough to maintain and, at least for now, it doesn’t look like this guy is going away any time soon.

Related Articles

State Fair Grandstand review: Chance the Rapper gives a lesson in perseverance

Concert review: Latin pop star Becky G opens Minnesota State Fair Grandstand season with abundantly good vibes

Concert review: Def Leppard and Journey struggle with vocals at Target Field

Minnesota State Fair 2024: A look at this year’s Grandstand offerings

Concert review: Green Day play their two biggest albums at high-energy Target Field show

While there’s a rich tradition of standup comedy at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand, it’s likely been a long time since a comedian outdrew all of the pop and country acts on the schedule. After all, could one person with a microphone standing relatively still onstage and talking really outdraw arena-rock headliners?

But that might be the case with Saturday night’s monologue by comedian Nate Bargatze. Over the course of a 20-year career, this funnyman from Tennessee has gradually ascended into the pantheon of currently active standup comedians, and a full-to-the-back fence Grandstand is the latest evidence that he’s among those at the peak of the field.

How is it that one man with one hand almost invariably behind his back speaking into a microphone could attract a sellout crowd of 13,570? Well, it helps that Bargatze’s a clean comedian who has a gift for finding common ground with his audiences through typical American experiences like attending a child’s career day at school or going through a drive-through at a fast food joint. But Bargatze has a particular gift for the short short story, engaging an audience in a tale for just long enough, then moving on to the next anecdote.

It’s all very accessible material, and Saturday’s hour-long set was as all-American as it could be. Like countless comedians before him, Bargatze spent a fair amount of his chat with the audience speaking of life at his house, where he makes clear that his wife is the brains of the outfit. Yes, he’s a self-deprecating guy who speaks of himself as rarely making the wisest move in a given situation, but mines every tale for laughs.

Delivering his stories in a slight southern drawl and at a very relaxed pace, Bargatze started his routine with the story of a Little League faux pas, establishing the format that most of his humor is at his own expense. But he’s quite skilled at making an audience feel as if they’re laughing with him, not at him. All of his humorous mistakes and everyday challenges become the kind of comedy that keeps you smiling throughout a set, with occasional bursts of laughter along the way.

On Saturday night, his avenue toward establishing rapport with his audience came via ordering from DoorDash, children having sleepovers, and lighthearted domestic disputes that he knows he has no chance of winning. While he could slip into generalizations that could be a little too close to that old school “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” stuff, the best material was the most specific, as when he spoke of his wife being frugal while he’s wasteful (“I married an old man from the Depression”).

There was also the challenge of assisting aging parents (“I walk in front of them like a sherpa, saying, ‘There’s a carpet coming up’”). But the strongest story of the night was his very funny tale of being a meter reader for a water company in Tennessee in 2001, and enlisted to guard his town’s water tower in case of terrorist attack. It was a great example of taking a time filled with fear and trepidation and playing it for delicious laughs.

He was preceded to the stage by four other comedians, each with a style quite distinctive from that of the headliner. Among them, Lachlan Patterson was engagingly low-key and slow-paced, Mike James a master of the twisting punch line, and Nick Thune a guitar-strumming absurdist from the Steven Wright school.

For eight innings, it looked like smooth sailing for the St. Paul Saints on Saturday. A three-run homer in the ninth inning by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Caleb Durdin then sent St. Paul to a 6-3 loss at CHS Field.

Durbin’s homer came off Saints reliever Jeff Brigham, who surrendered three runs on two hits and a walk in his one inning. Andrew Morris made his first Triple-A home start for St. Paul, allowing three runs in six innings.

Brooks Lee homered in his first at-bat for the Saints on his rehab assignment while playing as the designated hitter.

St. Paul newcomers Carson McCusker and Jeferson Morales each had hits in their first Triple-A game. Morales had a pair of hits.

Related Articles

A streak of a different kind: Saints beat Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for third in a row

Dobnak back with Saints while thankful for return to Twins

St. Paul Saints end 10-game losing streak with massive comeback

Saints’ Morris is latest prospect in Twins’ arms race

St. Paul Saints’ losing streak grows to nine games with walk-off loss to Indianapolis