There are not many musical artists out there who would get us excited to go to a stadium show. The prices for events like this are usually insane, we’re typically nowhere close to the venue, and the timing of these events in our travel lives usually stops us from going. This all changed when Amity found out her favorite musician, Zach Bryan, was playing in Eugene, Oregon. We had just missed the opportunity to see him when we were living in Arkansas a couple of years ago, and knew that we had to take advantage of this opportunity! With a couple of clicks of the mouse, we were set for the show!
Mile: 97,107
Quote of the Blog: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” - Zach Bryan
Song of the Blog: “Pink Skies” - Zach Bryan
Eugene was high on our list of places to visit, so we made a weekend out of it. We took advantage of Amity’s early end time on Fridays to get a head start on the drive. Eugene is a 4.5-hour drive northeast of Brookings. We took Highway 101 up the coast to Reedsport before heading east along the Umpqua River. It was a beautiful drive, capped off by some elk in the meadow along the Umpqua. We got to the Airbnb we rented just before the sun had set. The rental was above the owner’s garage, but they were at a String Cheese Incident concert. The fact that this was the band they were seeing told me they were your classic Oregon hippies! After a quick exploration of the property, we headed into town to find a place to get some food and a beer. We explored around the Nike HQ and some other stores around town before calling it an early night. The next morning, we planned to wake up and get a 12-mile training run in before the concert. Sometimes, I think we have a little bit of a running problem. That is, until the run is over, and then I’m stoked we did it. This run took us along the Willamette River and around parts of the University of Oregon campus. With it being Track City USA, it only felt right to go for a run around town. I took a short detour on my run to incorporate Pre’s Trail. This section of the path is dedicated to Steve Prefontaine and the area where he trained while attending Oregon. Aside from it being covered in soft sawdust, it was cool to check it off the list. Now that we had the running part of the day over with, it was time to get cleaned up and into “Concert Mode”!!
The concert was taking place at Autzen Stadium, where the University of Oregon football team plays. This is a short walk from downtown, so we planned to have dinner and walk over to the stadium. Our problem was that parking downtown was either nonexistent or $100. We had scouted out our exit strategy for the concert while doing our run. We had found a parking garage within walking distance of the stadium where we could park for free. All we had to do was get there pretty early and then take an Uber downtown. From there, we had a delicious dinner at a French restaurant called Marché. The food was bomb, and the restaurant knew the assignment. Even though it was higher-end dining, they were playing Zach Bryan music over their speaker system. We also spotted our first couple of groups wearing “Denim & Lace.” We had timed dinner perfectly so that we could leave the restaurant and walk straight over to the stadium. The closer we got, the more it became a slow march with everyone else headed to the same concert. More and more groups wearing nothing but “Denim & Lace” started appearing all over until we were in line to enter the venue. The reason I keep bringing up “Denim & Lace” is that a solid 60–70% of people were wearing some version of it, whether it was a guy in a Canadian tuxedo or a woman in a flowing lace dress with a denim vest. Amity couldn’t have been happier not to have gone with that look and instead channeled her true Montanan self with a classic, beautiful country-western look!
Our seats for the show were really good. We were in the lower section of the stadium seating with great views of the stage. The only catch was that getting in and out required climbing a few hundred stairs in each direction. This made going to the bathroom or getting a drink during the concert a serious decision. The first act’s name was Fey Fili. She was playing her first show in Oregon ever. Her message was about being backwoods Appalachian and how going to war is stupid! I’ve got to say, I did not expect that at a country concert. The next band’s lead singer had a button on that said “ICE OUT”. They’re known as Alabama Shakes, and once they started, the show really started to take off! They had great energy and got the stadium going! By the time Zach Bryan took the stage, the sun had set, and the stadium was lit up and buzzing! Once he started playing, the show was high-energy from start to finish. It was fun dancing with Amity to her favorite songs and watching people dance and sing along with him. I had no idea what the lyrics to any of his songs were, so it was a little weird for me. It was almost like going to a cult gathering and watching everyone dance around and lose their minds! One of the biggest things I enjoyed about the show was that Zach has a message of acceptance. His backup singers are trans, and he sings to a bunch of conservatively minded cowboys and cowgirls. This couldn’t be a better thing, in my opinion. There are a lot of his fans who need to listen to his message a little more and a little louder. Amity’s favorite part of the show was everything! This was her peak concert experience, better than any chance to see Taylor Swift. I couldn’t have been happier for her! There were laughs, high fives, dancing, and tears! Good music moves you and also allows you to heal. Zach’s music is just that for Amity: healing! For good reason, too! The song “Pinks Skies” plays on repeat in the minds of everyone surrounding Autumn’s untimely passing! The show ended with a 15–20-minute jam session in which everyone on stage got a solo. They went through everyone and even had Zach Bryan up in the scaffolding on the stage, holding on and singing his solo from up there. When they got to the banjo player, he collapsed on the stage. It looked like he was having a medical emergency, and I was sold! I didn’t know he does this at every show because the song they were playing is called “All Night Revival.” They revive him on stage, and then he rips an epic banjo solo! Amity was laughing at me because my jaw was on the floor, wondering when in the hell they were going to stop playing music to help this poor guy out. That moment is forever burned in my memory! The song wrapped up, and so did the concert. It was an epic night!
Our walk back to the car was quite comical. Because we had parked between the stadium and the U of O campus, we walked back to the car with all the college students. We had some good laughs, watched some people realize they had walked a long way in the wrong direction, and both had some good flashbacks to our college days. Getting to sleep was easy that night! Twelve miles of running and a concert! We were whooped! We had no real rush to get out of town the next day. We found a place to get some food along the Willamette River called Sweet Waters on the River, which was delicious and rejuvenating to say the least! Finally, it was time for our drive home. This time, we decided to take the route that went farther north than the other route, through Lincoln City and then southbound along the coast. Our drives on Highway 101 have become routine, but they are in no way ordinary. We are constantly in awe of what is around the next corner. The coves, bluffs, and gigantic rock gardens in the surf are some of the most beautiful areas we have seen! We are very fortunate and grateful to be calling this our “drive home.” As we passed Gold Beach, Oregon, we were greeted by some low-level fog that made the sunset glow on the horizon, as if it truly were a golden beach. By the time we got home, it was hard to believe everything that had happened over the weekend! I was personally pumped that the banjo player did not die on stage, and Amity was elated to have experienced a bucket-list concert! The good thing is that we have a beach close by where we can do some resting and recuperating before our next grand adventure!
