FLORENCE — Chase Bryant had that pivotal role of middle man at Thursday's opening day of Country Thunder 2016.
He was the artist charged with setting the tempo, setting the mood for the night.
He could bring the energy and create a fired-up atmosphere for Thursday's headliner Kip Moore and openers Old Dominion. Or he could play it low key.
Yeah, right, Chase Bryant play it low key.
Maybe at a funeral, but on Thursday at Country Thunder West festival grounds, with some 27,000 people in the audience, Bryant played it anything but low key.
He jumped up and down, strutted the length of the catwalk as the sun set and played rock-infused country loud enough to entice a few people in the front row to move back a few — or 20 — rows.
Bryant is a newcomer to country music, and someone who is quickly showing that he has no intention of being a flash in the pan. He already has a pair of Top 10 hits out of "Take It On Back" and "Little Bit of You" and on Thursday night the 23-year-old Texas native pulled out some impressive covers of Tom Petty's "Free Falling" and Justin Timberlake's "Drink You Away," including emulating Timberlake's on-my-knees-begging-you-please move. That was pretty darn cool.
Bryant also performed "Jet Black Cadillac" off his year-old debut album.
