Memorial Day Weekend Opens With a Bang at Brantley Gilbert Show [GALLERY]

WAITE PARK (WJON News) -- It was a wet, wild, and wonderful start to the Memorial Day Weekend on Friday night. The Ledge Amphitheater opened the 2026 season with Brantley Gilbert's "Tattoos" Tour. People were eagerly waiting in line beforehand to get into the show.

General Manager Meredith Lyon says her staff was equally excited to get their season going:

"It's actually kind of like a family reunion. A lot of the staff, we don't see each other for several months, so we bring everybody back, and that includes our contractors and anybody that is associated with the Ledge in some way, even down to our security team, our law enforcement. We have the Mayo Clinic here, our concessioners, and all of our internal staff."

She says even with the rain and cooler temperatures, people still enjoyed the show. Payton Smith, along with Aaron Lewis and the Stateliners, opened the concert for Brantley Gilbert.

Lyon says they appreciated people starting their long weekend with the Gilbert show at the Ledge:

"The fact that it's sold out on Memorial Weekend pretty much I think that is a statement with an exclamation mark just because of the fact that if people had other plans they wouldn't be showing up but the fact that it is sold out on Friday of Memorial Weekend; what a great way music, family, friends hanging out listening to some tunes kind of, what a great way to kick-off a Memorial Day Weekend."

Lyon says the first show always takes a little longer for staff to prepare because they have to de-winterize the facility.

Payton Smith started the show at 7:00 p.m. and played for 15-minutes with some upbeat tunes and a song called "Talladega" in tribute to recently deceased NASCAR Driver Kyle Bush, who passed away on Thursday. He then hung around at the merchandise table to chat with fans and sign autographs.

Aaron Lewis is also the lead singer of the rock group Staind.

After a short intermission, Aaron  Lewis and the Stateliners took the stage at 7:30 p.m. to an instrumental and voice-over mix of the Star Spangled Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance.  Lewis spoke with fans a lot in between numbers, either telling stories or sharing the inspiration behind his pieces. Some of the songs he played included "God and Guns," a new song called "Give My Country Back," and a cover of Staind's "It's Been Awhile." He joked with fans that he has so many songs he couldn't include all of them, but they could listen to what he didn't play in their cars on the way home.

Brantley Gilbert's new LP is scheduled to drop on July 24th.

Lewis played for an hour, and then, after a 30-minute intermission, it was time for Brantley Gilbert.  He also had a patriotic introduction with clips of famous presidential speeches playing on the stage's big screen. Gilbert came out firing on all cylinders and got the fans warmed up with his blended country rock and flaming pyrotechnics.  He played a mix of his classics, plus some new tunes like "Good Die Young."  By the end of the night, the rain had let up for a fun night of country music at the Ledge.

The Little River Band is up next for the Ledge on June 6th, followed up by Lee Brice on June 12th.  You can check out a photo gallery from the concert below.

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