Jelly Roll brings a night of healing to the Bryce Jordan Center

Jelly Roll brings a night of healing to the Bryce Jordan Center

As rain poured down around State College, Jelly Roll literally lit up a fire on stage at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Thousands of rain-soaked country music fans funneled into the arena, with the adult audience carrying a drink in each hand.

They filled the bowl as Hylyte and DJ Chill emceed the evening between sets. The crass duo played a variety of sounds, blasting everything from “Apple Bottom Jeans” to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” before Alexandra Kay took the stage.

Kay opened the endearing night with a show of gratitude to her fans in the audience for supporting her journey as a completely independent female artist.

She was amazed by the crowd response and took the time to return the love to her fans. Throughout her set, Kay signed autographs for fans who approached the split walkways, stopped the show to give guitar picks to young girls dancing along and got emotional at the crowd singing along to “Skip This Part.”

Following Kay was Warren Zeiders, playing what he called “as close to a hometown show as I can get” before revealing his first show ever was at Champs Downtown.

The State College crowd embraced him, singing along and screaming back the usual “We Are Penn State” chant that seemingly every artist does while visiting Happy Valley.

Zeiders’ set peaked when he played his biggest song “Pretty Little Poison” prompting the crowd to light up the building with phone flashlights. After concluding the track, Zeiders broke into tears after seeing all the lights swaying along.

With two emotional acts out of the way, the countdown clock started for the main event of the evening. When the clock struck zero, Jelly Roll made his way through the crowd with his wife, embracing her before stepping on a small stage behind the floor seats.

He opened with the uplifting “I Am Not Okay,” already making members of the crowd cry as a burning outline of a house dropped around him.

“You can expect it to be a night of healing, you can expect it to be a night of love, Most importantly I hope it’s one of the best shows of your life Penn State,” Jelly Roll said while on the b-stage.

Following the visual masterpiece, Jelly Roll made his way back to the main stage, dropping a curtain to reveal himself before breaking into “Halfway to Hell.”

While his band started playing “Get By” Jelly Roll asked the crowd if they wanted to “see a fat man move” while he danced around the main portion of the stage.

He then gave a speech about this show being a night of therapy and people healing together to introduce the next track “Son of a Sinner.”

Nostalgia set in the arena when Kay was brought back on stage to cover a medley of classics from “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” to “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)."

Jelly Roll traded general nostalgia for some of his own by following up with a medley of his older songs including “Fall in the Fall” and “Creature.”

The pace slowed down, as a speech about addiction and an emotional rendition of “She” left no dry eyes in the arena.

“This is more than just music to us, it’s medicine,” Jelly Roll said, sitting at a piano on stage.

Knowing this was his most heartfelt moment of the set, Jelly Roll searched for a message before landing on “The devil is a liar,” a segue to his next performance.

He walked down to the end of one of the walkways on the side of the stage with one of his guitarists and heartily sang his recent release “Liar.”

Jelly Roll finished the show with a series of upbeat hits including “Need a Favor” and “Smoking Section.”

The show ended with an encore performance of “Save Me” from the b-stage, allowing the Bryce Jordan Center to scream out all of their problems after a night of healing to the tune of country hits.

Evan Smith is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ers5828@psu.edu.