{"id":418187,"date":"2026-07-30T16:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/418187\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T16:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:27:16","slug":"the-three-san-diego-concerts-you-inevitably-do-not-want-to-miss-this-week-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/418187\/","title":{"rendered":"The three San Diego concerts you inevitably do not want to miss this week \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zach Bryan, with Ryan Bingham and Fey Fili<\/p>\n

Hollywood producers have yet to knock on Zach Bryan\u2019s door \u2014 so far as I know \u2014 to propose a big-budget biopic about this 30-year-old U.S. Navy veteran turned exceedingly unlikely country-music superstar and Grammy Award-winner.<\/p>\n

But that should be only matter of time.\u00a0And when the time comes, Bryan\u2019s real-life story won\u2019t need any alterations or embellishments to be ready for feature film treatment.<\/p>\n

Born in Okinawa, Japan, to parents who were both in the Navy, Bryan enlisted at 17 and served for eight years as an aviation ordinance man. He was stationed in Florida and Washington state and did tours of duty in Bahrain and Djibouti.<\/p>\n

His musical breakthrough came in 2020 when Bryan \u2014 who was still on active duty at the time \u2014 made an iPhone recording of his song, \u201cHeading South,\u201d at a Florida hotel (not, as urban legend has it, at a Navy barracks). The song went viral on TikTok and YouTube, creating enough buzz for Bryan to be signed by Warner Bros. Records a year later.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeading South\u201d has now passed the 900-million mark on Spotify. His first release for Warner, 2022\u2019s \u201cAmerican Heartbreak,\u201d is a three-album set with 34 songs. By the time Bryan made his San Diego debut with a sold-out show at Petco Park\u2019s Gallagher Square in 2022, he was the biggest new country-music star to break through since Chris Stapleton in 2015.<\/p>\n

Bryan is not a great singer or lead guitarist like Stapleton, or a genre-upending musical subversive like Tyler Childers. But his sturdy, well-crafted songs are concise, eloquent and exude his earnestness and rugged, affectation-free charm.<\/p>\n

His frills-free singing and no-nonsense lyrics have a winning warmth and resonance. And when he and his band kick into high gear on songs like \u201cOvertime,\u201d \u201cMotorcycle Drive By\u201d and his concert-closing \u201cRevival,\u201d you can feel the musical and emotional propulsion.<\/p>\n

Bryan is a homespun storyteller and, like Bruce Springsteen (whose music seems foundational to Bryan), a champion of the underdog whose second album is entitled \u201cAll My Homies Hate Ticketmaster.\u201d Bryan\u2019s 2023 ballad, \u201cI Remember Everything\u201d \u2014 an aching duet with Kacey Musgraves \u2014 has the distinction of having simultaneously topped the national Billboard pop, country and hot rock\/alterative charts.<\/p>\n

This interview-shunning troubadour also has the distinction of being the only chart-topping U.S. Navy veteran to be publicly slammed by the Department of Homeland Security. His alleged offense was daring to critique divisive, soul-sapping government policies in his poignant 2025 song, \u201cBad News.\u201d<\/p>\n

It includes such searing lines as: I heard the cops came \/ Cocky (expletives), ain\u2019t they? \/ And ICE is gonna come bust down your door \/ Try to build a house no one builds no more \/ But I got a telephone\/ Kids are all scared and all alone\u2026 The middle finger\u2019s rising \/ And it won\u2019t stop showing \/ Got some bad news \/ The fading of the red, white and blue.\u201c<\/p>\n

This weekend, Bryan will become the first artist to headline two back-to-back concerts at Snapdragon Stadium \u2014 and the first to perform there with an in-the-round stage setup. His\u00a0recent concerts have averaged 23 songs each, including \u201cBurn Burn Burn,\u201d his 2022 ballad that was inspired by Jack Kerouac\u2019s famed 1957 novel, \u201cOn The Road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not coincidentally, in May Bryan bid more than $12 million at an auction to acquire the original manuscripts for Kerouac\u2019s two most famous books, \u201cOn the Road\u201d and \u201cThe Dharma Bums.\u201d He donated both to the Massachusetts-based Jack Kerouac Center, which will be housed in a former church in Kerouac\u2019s hometown of Lowell. Bryan bought the former church last year specifically for that purpose. His concerts may not be a religious experience, but they are uplifting and then some.<\/p>\n

6:30 p.m. Friday, July 31, and Saturday. Snapdragon Stadium, 2101 Stadium Way, Mission Valley. $168.20-$465.20. ticketmaster.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TheThe recently reactivated Chicago-bred band Tortoise will perform at the Belly Up. (File photo)
\nTortoise, with Coffin Prick<\/p>\n

Formed in Chicago in 1991, Tortoise is a band whose albums and concerts have consistently and joyously defied categorization, despite being lumped in with the amorphous \u201cpost-rock\u201d scene.<\/p>\n

Equal parts experimental, dub reggae, jungle, jazz, musique concr\u00e8te, funk, rock, classical minimalism and more, Tortoise\u2019s all-embracing music delights with its constant shape-shifting and real-time recontextualizing.<\/p>\n

The group last fall released \u201cTouch,\u201d its first new album in nine years. Lilting one moment, appealingly off-kilter and almost shell-shockingly abrasive the next, the album paints vivid soundscapes that never go where you expect and are all the more memorable as a result.<\/p>\n

8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1. Belly Up, 143 South Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach. $44.30 (must be 21 or older to attend). ticketweb.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JudyJudy Collins is bringing her extended farewell tour to Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in San Diego. (Sam Hough)
\nJudy Collins \u201cSweet Judy Blue Eyes: Farewell,\u201d with Amanda Shires<\/p>\n

Judy Collins isn\u2019t exactly rushing into retirement at 87.<\/p>\n

But this storied singer, songwriter and author has announced she will step back from extensive touring, at least after her current concert trek concludes in late 2027. Then comes \u201cSweet Judy Blue Eyes \u2014 Celebration Encore,\u201d a series of special encore performances.<\/p>\n

Judy Collins, a happy workaholic at 85, talks music, sobriety and testifying at 1968\u2019s Chicago 7 trial<\/a><\/p>\n

By the time she celebrates her 90th birthday in 2029, it won\u2019t be too surprising if Collins decides to extend her tour.<\/p>\n

Either way, the opportunity to hear her sing and share stories is always welcome. And when Collins digs deep into \u201cSend In The Clowns,\u201d one of her signature numbers, goosebumps may result. Be sure to arrive early for Amanda Shires\u2019 opening set.<\/p>\n

7:30 p.m. Aug. 6. Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. $79.15. humphreysconcerts.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zach Bryan, with Ryan Bingham and Fey Fili Hollywood producers have yet to knock on Zach Bryan\u2019s door…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[967,181,6682,74,76,75,420,1696],"class_list":["post-418187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-entertainment","tag-latest-headlines","tag-music-and-concerts","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}