Kacey Musgraves performs at United Center in Chicago on Aug. 12, 2026. Photos: Charles Reagan.
OAKLAND — Usually, it’s the audience that shows up to a concert ready to celebrate. At Kacey Musgraves’ sold-out show Friday night at Oakland Arena, the headliner seemed just in a just as festive mood as her fans.
The country superstar was nearing the end of her North American Middle of Nowhere Tour, which began in Chicago in August. Oakland was one of the first shows to sell out, she told the crowd.
“I have been looking forward to this show for a long time,” Musgraves said. “We always have fun in the Bay Area.”
Earlier in the day, she’d also released two songs from the follow-up to April’s Middle of Nowhere. Vol. 2: Tex Mex Tapes, is coming in January.
As fans found their seats and claimed spots, they were greeted by a circular setup with a slightly raised stage surrounding an elevated bandstand shaped like a five-point star.
A circular video screen hung above it, while floor seating flanked two sides and standing room filled the space in front of half the stage. At the far end of the arena sat a two-story Texas roadhouse set with a corrugated-metal facade.
After a digital clock counted down from five minutes to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” members of Musgraves’ septet emerged from the roadhouse and took their places onstage as she sang from its upper level.
Opening song “Everybody Wants to Be a Cowboy” began, appropriately enough, with “It’s Friday night on the east side” — albeit a different east side.
From there, the production kept growing. A broken ring of fire and light fireworks introduced the show’s disciplined use of pyrotechnics. “Dry Spell,” the mesmerizing country-noir ode to randiness from Middle of Nowhere, kept the momentum going.
Musgraves wore oversized hoop earrings, a bedazzled denim bustier and matching short shorts, setting the dress standard for plenty of urban and suburban cowfolk in the crowd.
The buoyant beat and catchy chorus of “justified,” from 2021’s star-crossed, drew a singalong. For “High Horse,” keyboardist Clif Johnson added accordion to the song’s disco arrangement.
Taking her first break to address the crowd, Musgraves joked, “I do have to say, though: I’m a little disappointed. I was really hoping I’d see some gay people here.”
A roar of protest followed.
“I just want you to feel like you can be yourselves tonight, feel safe to be yourselves,” she said. “I want you to sing as loud as you want to. … Because we all know the truth is that outside these walls, there’s a lot of bullshit going on out there.”
The crowd did just that for the elegiac “Merry Go ’Round,” Musgraves’ first double-platinum single, from 2013’s Same Trailer Different Park.
Playing acoustic guitar on the outer ring of the stage, she rotated clockwise to face each section of the arena.
“Butterflies” featured what appeared to be an LED butterfly sculpture flown around the arena by drone.
Musgraves returned to the turntable for Middle of Nowhere character study “Abilene,” this time moving faster and counterclockwise, almost like an airport people mover.
The range and flexibility of Musgraves’ band opened new possibilities in her songbook. Accordion, keyboard bass and banjo joined the arrangements at various points, while Drew Taubenfeld’s pedal steel provided a frequent underpinning.
“I’m a very proud Texan, and I am deeply and forever inspired by the relationship between Mexico and Texas,” Musgraves said after taking a break to adjust her outfit. “It’s a deep, deep history of shared culture, tradition, music, food, stories and a whole lot of other things. You know, Texas and Mexico have been swapping songs for a really long time.”
She then performed the Tex-Mex version of Middle of Nowhere track “Uncertain, Texas,” complete with choreographed dance moves by the band.
Watching an entire arena sway in 3/4 time to Middle of Nowhere track “Horses and Divorces” was an unexpected highlight.
So was Musgraves explaining the personal significance of the Norteño standard “Mi Tesoro” before performing it. The song was one of the two tracks she released Friday.
“I love that this is the type of song that’s been the soundtrack to so many people’s lives, their parents’ lives — maybe weddings,” she said.
A de facto mascot of the Middle of Nowhere Tour is the oversized mirrored scrotum — or “disco balls” — lowered from above for Middle of Nowhere track “Rhinestoned.”
“This is my grandma’s favorite part of the show,” Musgraves admitted.
Seated on its swinging bench before being raised and rotated above the arena, she delivered the song’s breezy melody before returning to the stage for the lusty “Mexico Honey,” which played almost like the other side of “Dry Spell.”
“Follow Your Arrow,” with its invitation to “kiss lots of boys/ Or kiss lots of girls/ If that’s somethin’/ You’re into,” closed the main set and felt particularly welcomed by the crowd.
Musgraves returned for an encore with her rewrite of George Strait’s “All My Ex’s Live in Texas.”
“I kind of rewrote the verses to tell my side of the story,” she said. Her version, “All My Exes (Kacey’s Version),” will be one of five covers on Middle of Nowhere Vol. 2.
Singer-songwriter Estevie (Sarah Silva) was an inspired choice to open the night.
The first-generation Mexican American artist from the Inland Empire blends cumbia with contemporary pop, sharing Musgraves’ elastic view of genre and influence.
It’s rare for a support act to fully engage a headliner’s audience, but Estevie managed it.
She began “quiero saber” in Spanish, drawing a burst of recognition when she switched to English for the chorus. Fans who hadn’t yet identified the tune suddenly recognized a reworking of Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.”
Transforming the power ballad into a torch song, Estevie set up a guitar solo with enough confidence and bite to stand on its own.
A tease of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” segued into “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” producing the first major singalong of the night.
She also got the crowd to scream for her own “la cumbia del cucuy,” which she dedicated to the late-October spooky season.
“I love how much she loves the Mexican culture and how much she supports the community,” Estevie said of Musgraves between songs. “I feel like that’s so beautiful.”
Kacey Musgraves performs at United Center in Chicago on Aug. 12, 2026.
Kacey Musgraves performs at United Center in Chicago on Aug. 12, 2026.
Kacey Musgraves performs at United Center in Chicago on Aug. 12, 2026.
About The Author
A South Bay native, Yoshi Kato’s first concert was John Waite at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds as an impressionable teenager. Some 2,200 concerts later, he’s a middle-aged journalist who specializes in arts and entertainment coverage on the music side and has contributed to daily newspapers, alternative weeklies, national magazines and online publications.
A South Bay native, Yoshi Kato’s first concert was John Waite at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds as an impressionable teenager. Some 2,200 concerts later, he’s a middle-aged journalist who specializes in arts and entertainment coverage on the music side and has contributed to daily newspapers, alternative weeklies, national magazines and online publications.