Stagecoach 2025 Day One Best Moments: Zach Bryan, Lana Del Rey, Tucker Wetmore & More

Sister duo Tigirlily Gold had one of the most fun sets of the early afternoon, a rollicking, crowd-involving collection of should’ve been hits — including an irresistible cover of Leona Lewis’ 2008 Billboard Hot 100-topping ballad “Bleeding Love.” The most enjoyable moment came when during catalog highlight “I Tried a Ring On,” singer/sister Kendra Slaughbaugh decided she’d had enough of her show’s (relatively brief) setlist flapping in the wind in front of her, and ripped it off the stage, tossing it down the steps below them. “I’ll pick it up later,” she promised. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

“For the next song, I’m gonna need a male counterpart,” South Carolina-born singer-songwriter Nikki Lane teased when intro-ing a new song from her early-afternoon set — eventually inviting Drake Milligan, who’d just played the same stage barely a half-hour earlier, onstage to join her. Though the pair tempered expectations due to their lack of prep (“We just learned this thing in the backyard,” “I got a cheat sheet”), their performance of the upcoming “Wreck It All” — an ’80s-style rocker with a knockout riff and a dynamite chorus — was suitably adorable. “I heart Nikki Lane,” Milligan professed to end his cameo, and he no doubt was far from the only one among those in the Palomino Stage tent. — A.U.

“Every single one of y’all know the words to this song,” Arizona singer-songwriter Avery Anna teased about her next song partway through her Friday set. Though her packed performance did include an impressive amount of fan singing to her own originals, her cockiness in this case came from the fact that she was about to perform a cover of one of the signature songs from the biggest artist in the world — Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.” Sure enough, the singing along came fast and furious from those in attendance, and Anna giddily twirled around on stage, like she was leading her very own Fearless World Tour. — A.U.

Rising star Tucker Wetmore more than lived up to the hype during a solid 35-minute set that left the mid-afternoon crowd wanting more. Early on, he performed his heartbreaking crowd-pleaser of a breakout hit, “Wine into Whiskey.” Then, he went into a covers medley, which included Gavin DeGraw’s “I Don’t Want to Be” — and then, revealing he had been playing piano since he was 10, he pounded out a credible “Great Balls of Fire” that would have made the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis, smile, before segueing into The Commodores’ ’70s soul standard “Easy.” After leading the audience in a singalong to his No. 2 Country Airplay hit, “Wind Up Missin’ You,” he wrapped his set admitting he’d been known “to like some blondes in my life,” before going into “Brunette,” a fun ditty about seeing if switching some of his physical preferences could lead to better luck at love. We predict next time Wetmore plays Stagecoach, the sun will definitely have gone down and his stock will have gone up. – MELINDA NEWMAN

Playing to a full indoor crowd at the Bud Light Backyard, Alana Springsteen made the case for her emotionally detailed singer-songwriter anthems to be heard outdoors next time she’s at the fest. Best of the bunch was the heart-rending as-yet-unreleased ballad “Love Me Anyway,” a ballad of yearning for unconditional acceptance, where Springsteen wonders if recent changes in her life are testing the limits of the people who promise she can tell them anything, and asks “Would you love me anyway?” if they really knew who she currently was. When the final chorus turns into “I hope that you still love me anyway,” it’s an absolute leveler. — A.U.

At a time when the country mainstream (and country radio in particular) has been notoriously frosty towards women artists, Carly Pearce has still managed a formidable run as a country hitmaker over the past eight years. So when she calls her tour opener (and earlier-Friday performer) Carter Faith “one of the best female singers I’ve heard since I moved to Nashville 20 years ago” and promises the crowd “you will remember this name,” you have to give her words some real weight. That’s especially true when Peace then also invites Faith on stage to help out on one of her own signature hits in “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” and Faith fills in for duet partner Ashley McBryde — no small ask, but Faith was indeed up to the task. — A.U.

In a moment that will no doubt go down in eternal Stagecoach lore, Lana Del Rey capped her first-ever Stagecoach set with the debut of the new song “57.5.” It was surprising enough to find out what that title number meant in the lyrics — her monthly Spotify listeners in millions — but that was nothing compared to the plot-twist bridge that arrives late in the song: “I kissed Morgan Wallen. I guess kissing me kind of went to his head. If you want my secret to success, I suggest don’t go ATV’ing with him when you’re out West!” Whoa! Did Del Rey and country’s biggest star of the 2020s really have a mini-tryst? Did ATV’ing acually sour their relationship? Is this all elaborate meta-commentary about the genre Del Rey is now supposedly pivoting to? We may never know for sure, since LDR doesn’t seem interested in related follow-ups, swearing “this is the last time I’m ever going to say this line” right before delivering it. — A.U.

Three years ago, Zach Bryan played to an overflowing crowd at Stagecoach’s Palomino Stage. Friday night, he made an even more victorious return to the festival—this time progressing to headline the fest’s Mane Stage.

“I wore the same shirt, I thought it was cute,” he told the massive crowd.  From there, the Oklahoma native blazed through a set that included copious amounts of hits and fan-favorite songs, including “Something in the Orange,” the horn-driven “Overtime,” the jangly “Open the Gate,” the country-tilted “Whiskey Fever,” and a solo rendition of “Hey Driver.”

He aso gave a nod to one of the evening’s earlier performers, Lana Del Rey, saying, “Never in my life did I think I would be onstage around the same time as Lana Del Rey. She’s the best.” Later, he performed what he called his “favorite song of all time,” Warren Zevon’s classic rock staple “Lawyers, Guns and Money.”

Noeline Hofmann joined him on “Purple Gas,” while Willow Avalon came in Kacey Musgraves’ stead for “I Remember Everything.” Bryan closed out his set with a rollicking, band-spotlighting rendition of signature closer “Revival,” turning the song into an extended give-and-take lyrical volley with the audience — as Bryan and his band of music makers spotlighted not only their musicianship but a tight-knit performance style that made Bryan’s Mane stage Stagecoach performance one to remember. — JESSICA NICHOLSON