How Zach Bryan’s Surprise Set at Sagebrush Came to Be
By Rachel Rascoe, January 10, 2024, 12:50pm, Earache!
On Tuesday evening, breakout country act Zach Bryan announced a surprise in Austin on the same platform that originally pushed his rise to viral stardom, Twitter.
Just after 8pm, the singer posted: “9pm I’m playin’ a 40 minute set at Sagebrush in Austin, Texas. First 100 people to show up; first come, first serve.” Bryan’s 2022 major-label debut American Heartbreak opened at No. 5 on the Billboard album chart, less than a year after the Oklahoma-raised artist had been serving in the Navy. Onstage, Bryan played acoustic guitar accompanied by a fiddle player.
The surprise concert, which attracted a line down the block that Sagebrush talent buyer/singer-songwriter Chasen Wayne estimates had over 1,000 people in it, spotlighted the South Congress honky-tonk. According to Wayne, Bryan’s team rented out the South Congress music venue for a music video shoot, including other unidentified celebrities, on Tuesday. The shoot was organized by Austin-based Lauren Wilkins of Side Label Productions.
That evening, booker Wayne encountered Bryan smoking in front of the venue, and they began formulating impromptu plans for a surprise concert. Wayne colorfully recounts:
[image-1-right]“I said, ‘You can smoke inside. You've paid for the building.’ I just don't want any Austin resident in rush hour traffic to see Zack Bryan being the lone man standing in front of the building. He does not roll with any security. He is truly what he advertises, the perfect anti-celebrity. He's a fucking superhero in my mind in the last couple hours.
“I'm like, ‘I'd really like you to play a show here sometime. I know you’ve got to go through agencies.’ And he goes, ‘Well, I was actually about to ask you – can I play a show here tonight?’ Pretty much, Zach Bryan and I had the same idea within five minutes of meeting each other, and we secured it within half an hour. I'm like, ‘I'll be damned if this doesn't happen.’ Somebody went to Party City to get wristbands.”
Wayne, who’s been booking acts like Nikki Lane and Bill Kirchen at the venue since last May, considers yesterday’s show the “crown jewel” of his career. The Austinite says he’s actually reached out to Bryan’s team before as a long shot to play the venue. He adds: “I’ve reached out to Chris Stapleton, Sierra Ferrell. I am the nuisance of most major booking agencies, but they have to respond to me, especially after the last 10 hours. I always shoot the shot.
“I'm pretty much a plumber who's trying to be a musician and talent buyer, and probably trying to be the best talent buyer.”
Sagebrush opened in 2020, owned by a team including Denis O’Donnell and Marshall McHone, also of the White Horse. Yesterday’s surprise show almost didn’t happen, after a member of the production team approached country scene veteran O’Donnell outside the venue last month. Wayne says O'Donnell – unfamiliar with Bryan's music – found their offer of a day rate for a music video shoot to be too low.
Wayne, who considers himself O’Donnell’s protégé, recounts: “Denis said something like, ‘Well, man, best of luck to you and… Zach Bryan? But we're not the YMCA. We're trying to be legendary, not a charity.’” The venue typically only closes for occasions like the 2023 wedding of Shakey Graves’ Alejandro Rose-Garcia and Stephanie Hunt.
The booker hopes the show highlights the independent shows happening year round at Sagebrush.
“This needs to be a pivot for Sagebrush. I'm hustling, and that's what I'm good for,” says Wayne, who was born on a ranch in Kennedale, Texas. “Just like Denis does, and just like Marshall does. They can easily sell this place and not deal with any of it, but they don't, because we all ultimately love music, the history, the authenticity, and the future of music to be maintained. That's the stuff that made me, growing up in a town of 800 people, want to move to Austin.”
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