On Saturday, February 24th, I saw 49 Winchester and Zandi Holup at Minglewood Hall in Memphis, Tennessee. I had an amazing time at this show; it was an awesome night filled with high energy and great music. In this blog, I’d like to share with you my experience at this show.
I had been planning on attending this show since it was announced back in November. When the show was announced, Drayton Farley was scheduled to be the opening act. However, I noticed that, closer to the show date, Zandi Holup was listed as the opener on both the venue’s website and Bandsintown.
To my knowledge, no reason was given for the change in the lineup and, personally, I was not upset with the change. Prior to this show, I had followed Zandi on TikTok for a good while and had enjoyed everything I had heard from her so far. While Drayton Farley is one of my favorite artists and I would love to see him perform live again, I have seen him twice now. In contrast, this was my first time seeing Zandi.
Zandi Holup played a stunning set that night. She had an amazing stage presence and her music seemed to truly connect with the crowd at Minglewood Hall. Throughout her set, I heard a great deal of applause and cheers from all around the venue. I am certain that, from her performance that night, Zandi gained many new fans and listeners.
I was quite surprised when Zandi opened her set with her most popular song, ‘Gas Station Flowers’. In my experience, many artists, especially opening acts, will play their most popular songs either in the middle or at the end of their sets. I have found that it is quite rare for artists to play their most popular song first.
However, I think playing this song first was a great move by Zandi. If you have listened to ‘Gas Station Flowers’ before you know that it is one of those heavy songs that stops you in your tracks. By opening with this song, she instantly captured the crowd’s attention and maintained their attention throughout her set.
There were a few songs throughout Zandi’s set where it seemed like the crowd had gone completely silent and was taking in every word she sang. One such song was called ‘Mary Jane’ which was an impactful, hard-hitting song that described the struggles of drug addiction and overcoming it.
As of this writing, Zandi only has two songs on streaming platforms. Therefore, almost all of her set that night was unreleased music. After her performance at Minglewood Hall, I can confidently say that she has a lot of great music to come. I cannot wait for her to release new music so that I can hear the songs she played that night again.
The headlining act, 49 Winchester, took the stage next and they played a killer set that I enjoyed every single second of. I have been an avid listener of 49 Winchester for around 2 years now. This was my first time seeing them live and I was definitely not disappointed.
During their set, not only did I enjoy hearing them play, but I also had the best time watching the band interact and feed off each others’ energy. Not only did they play some great music but they also put on an amazing show. I think that, even if someone was less familiar with 49 Winchester’s music, they would still really enjoy the show because of how entertaining this band is to watch.
To my delight, I got to hear almost every single one of my favorite 49 Winchester songs that night. Their setlist featured many of my favorites including ‘Hays, Kansas’, ‘Everlasting Lover’, and ‘Russell County Line”.
49 Winchester also played a few unreleased songs that have me so excited for their next album to come out. One of the unreleased songs they played was called ‘I Think I Should’ve Stayed In Tulsa’ which is a fun, catchy song that I cannot wait to listen to again when the album drops.
I could tell that the crowd at Minglewood Hall really enjoyed 49 Winchester's performance that night. Everyone was singing along, cheering, and truly leaning into their high-energy performance. For instance, the group of drunk guys to the left of me on the barricade seemed like they were having the best time of their lives and they kept screaming ‘I love you’ at the band in between (and sometimes during) almost every single song.
I had such a great time at this show and at Minglewood Hall. I have been to this venue a few times now but this was my first time there in about a year or so and it is still a great venue with polite, helpful staff. If you ever have the chance to catch a show at Minglewood Hall or the 1884 Lounge at Minglewood, I highly recommend you go! It is honestly one of my favorite live music venues in the Memphis area because of its clean facilities, decent amount of parking, and great staff.
If you’re interested in discovering more about the artists discussed in this article you can check them out on Instagram: Zandi Holup / 49 Winchester.
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