Zac Brown Band Deliver Spectacular Finale To C2C Festival 2023

The final night of C2C Festival is always coloured with a bittersweet sense of sadness, as the three-day country music extravaganza draws to a close for another year.

Nonetheless, one of modern country's most decorated and most eclectic artists, the Zac Brown Band, was on hand to ensure the festival's 10th-anniversary celebration truly went out with a bang.

All nine - yes, nine - members of the ensemble strode out casually onto the stage, before the main man himself, Zac, opened the show by apologising for not coming back to the UK since 2017.

As the multi-instrumentalists stormed through the rootsy small-town anthem, ‘Homegrown’, and the blissful, Buffettian escapism of ‘Knee Deep’, it was clear this was not going to be a standard headline set.

At times, with Caroline Jones’ cavernous vocals, Lindsay Ell's electrifying guest guitar solo, Jimmy De Martini's rip-roaring fiddle-playing and Daniel De Los Reyes’ percussion masterclass, it felt more like a histrionic opera than a country concert.

Each member of the band got their turn to showcase their enviable skills, but the beating heart of the set, as always, was Zac Brown.

He prowled across the stage like a caged bull, flitting between muscled-up, rock-inspired charisma and the delicate, introspective vulnerability that makes ballads such as ‘Colder Weather’ and ‘My Old Man’ so special.

The latter, which Zac introduced with a tribute to his own father, stunned the O2 crowd into complete silence, everyone's gaze trained solely on the dusty spotlight that illuminated the unmistakable silhouette of Zac and his trusty guitar.

The audience lapped up the covers included in the set, which ranged from Kings of Leon's ‘Sex on Fire’ to Bruce Springsteen's ‘Dancing in the Dark’.

The band also treated attendees to a live debut of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’, which they recorded for the new Stoned Cold Country tribute album.

It was delivered with ferocity and fire, and although it perhaps lacked the looseness that characterised The Rolling Stones’ performances, it was still a stellar moment in the set.

Hearing 20,000 voices join together for the grand finale, the irresistible, iconic ‘Chicken Fried’, was truly special, and capped off a once-in-a-lifetime show that will stay with attendees for a long, long time.

Zac Brown Band C2C Festival 2023 Set List

Taken from The O2 in London, UK on March 12th 2023.

1. Homegrown
2. Knee Deep
3. Free / Into the Mystic
4. Dancing in the Dark (cover of Bruce Springsteen)
5. Sex on Fire (cover of Kings of Leon)
6. Keep Me in Mind
7. It's Not OK
8. Toes
9. My Old Man
10. As She's Walking Away
11. Paint It Black (cover of The Rolling Stones)
12. Loving You Easy
13. Jump Right In
14. Sweet Annie
15. Same Boat
16. Big Love (cover of Fleetwood Mac)
17. Out in the Middle
18. Colder Weather / Take It To The Limit (cover of the Eagles)
19. Chicken Fried

For more on C2C Festival 2023, see below:

Zac Brown Band

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