Post Malone • Jelly Roll • April 29, 2025 • Rice-Eccles Stadium
Reviewed and Photographed by Kevin Rolfe
Post Malone’s BIG ASS STADIUM TOUR Opens in Salt Lake City!
It should come as no surprise that Post Malone opened his BIG ASS Stadium Tour right here in Utah. He loves this place. And just to continue stating the obvious, the place loves him. Salt Lake City is Post Malone’s adopted hometown and he has been well embraced since he’s made this area his home base. When this tour was announced, I wondered if Utah would make the cut. So often artists that become beloved by Utah start to neglect us on their bigger tour stops.
Sometimes when a stadium tour is announced, Utah will get passed by because we don’t have an NFL-sized stadium so the show would be much smaller than any of their other shows. But if you look at artists like Luke Combs, Garth Brooks, or U2, they still make it a point to come to a state that has loved them from the beginning. I was very happy to see that Utah would be the first show on the BIG ASS Stadium Tour.
Austin Post’s tour playing these massive venues will be joined on this tour by Jelly Roll. An artist who’s as hot as anyone in music right now. walking into the venue, you would have guessed by the cowboy hats, boots, and plaid shirts, that. were at a George Strait or Alan Jackson concert. But sure enough, we were at a Post Malone show. It’s a musical genre-bending show, to say the least.
Jelly Roll
I parked my car and rushed to Rice-Eccles Stadium. I was running behind due to an accident and was at risk of not getting to the photo area in time to take photos of Jelly Roll. Desperate times called for me to hop on one of those bike rickshaws. Jeff peddled away and got me to the gates of the stadium just in time. Of course, once I got in there, we had time to settle in. Sometimes with tour opening nights, things can be delayed because they’re doing it live for the first time. I have to hand it to this tour. Despite a few minor delays, I thought everything went smoothly. Especially for an opening show.
While Utah Concert Review has had the opportunity to cover a Jelly Roll show, this would be my first time getting to take in one of his live performances. I’ve seen him on TV plenty of times. He has a remarkable story. It’s good to see things going so well for him in his life. With the sun going down, people packed Rice-Eccles in time to catch Jelly’s set. He followed his band on stage and as soon as he appeared the capacity crowd road as he took the stage.
Jelly Roll went from his song, “I Am Not Okay” into a medley covering a variety of hit songs. First in the mix was “Sweet Home Alabama”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that song fail to get an audience going. People, as you’d imagine, sang along to the chorus. In an unexpected twist, he followed that with “How You Remind Me” by Candada’s finest, Nickelback. People were singing along very enthusiastically to this one. People like to pretend to hate Nickelback. But the way this crowd was singing along, they seem to have more fans here in Utah than people let on.
Jelly Roll shouted, “I’m in Salt Lake City with Post Malone tonight, y’all!”. Then he busted into his next cover, “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus. I did not expect any of these covers. But I must say he pulled them off. Especially with his final cover, Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa, “Young, Wild & Free”. People had their hands in the air. This medley of covers what a sign of the broad spectrum of music genres we’d be experiencing at this show.
Jelly Roll’s set was only about 45 minutes. Being a headliner in his own right, this went by so fast. It felt like he just got going before it was time to go. He closed his set with a powerful rendition of “Save Me”. Rice-Eccles Stadium looked like a starry night with the audience lighting up the venue with their phone lights. This song put Jelly’s vocal talent on full display. He has so much range in his voice. It was clear that the audience would have loved a few more songs from him. But at the same time, it was impossible for these fans not to get excited when they remembered that Post Malone was next.
I can’t imagine it will be too long before we see Jelly Roll back in Utah on his own headlining tour. He’s got a hot streak going and I’m sure he’ll continue to be on the rise as he continues to release more and more hit songs. I thought he was the perfect support artist to Post Malone on this massive tour.
Post Malone
Jelly Roll left the audience in great spirits. As the crew began to switch out his gear and get things ready for Post Malone, music played throughout the stadium. People were singing along and having a great time. Whitney Houston’s hit, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” was particularly well received. The stadium was so loud during the chorus you would have thought it was being covered by one of the artists. The tone was set for Posty to make his stadium tour debut.
The band filled the stadium with an opening jam. Then as if out of nowhere, Post Malone appeared on stage right. He was backlit. So he was unable to be fully seen, yet his presence was very well known. He opened with, “Texas Tea”. The song finished with an explosion of fireworks that matched the firey energy of this packed stadium. He followed with “Wow.” from Hollywood’s Bleeding. This felt like what I thought a Post Malone show would be like. But even though this was my first show of his, I could tell it was a heightened experience.
“Salt Lake City how the f*ck are you feeling tonight?! My name is Austin Richard Post… Thank you so f*çking much. It means the f*cking world. This is my first f*cking stadium tour and I’m so f*cking honored and so f*cking grateful. I really appreciate it.” Post Malone then started right into, “Better Now”. The concert never ceased to impress from there.
“This song is for anybody in here who feels like an outcast or a bit of a f*cking weirdo. I just want to say that you’re not f*cking alone. I had the opportunity to bring one of my favorite f*cking weirdos in the world on tour. Would you please welcome Mr. Jelly Roll up on the stage? The two performed “Losers”. They seemed to really enjoy performing together. They sounded great together. I hoped they would do this so it was great to see them on stage.
“It’s so cool to go on tour with the most beautiful people in the f*cking universe. This is night one. And holy f•ck this is f*cking awesome!” He then celebrated with another beer brought to him by Pat one of his crew members. The crowd chanted “Pat, Pat, Pat” whenever he walked on stage.
It was impressive how Post Malone was able to blend his current country-influenced sound with some of his older hip-hop style. The songs flowed seamlessly. What impressed me the most is that he could perform a song like “M-E-X-I-C-O”, which is as rooted in Classic Country Music as anything in his catalog with a song like “Goodbyes”. This crowd was there for all of it.
In a funny moment, Posty brought out an acoustic guitar to the foot of the catwalk to perform “What Don’t Belong To Me”. As he sang the intro he noticed that the intro was really high. So he stopped the song and said, “F*ck me sideways. I can do this!” He took a swig of beer or whatever was in his Red Solo Cup and started playing again. He then said, “Maybe I’ll just do it an octave lower.” It sounded really good that way and the audience fully had his back.
Post Malone invited Sierra Ferrell to the stage. “I had the opportunity of bringing one of the most beautiful women in the world and one of the most talented people in the entire universe. We did a song together.” They performed “Never Love You Again”. This was one of the major highlights of the show for me. Sierra is a true talent. They sounded so good together. I felt like I was at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville when I was watching these two. Their harmonies and tone were on point. I could have listened to them all night.
Sierra Ferell was gone. Jelly Roll was gone. It was just Post Malone for the rest of the night. Posty exclaimed, “Let’s f*cking get after it fellas” as they broke out into “Circles”. This was one of those moments in the show where the energy rose to another level. People were feeling good and totally flowing with the song.
Posty told us that he’ll be 30 years old in July. He shared that the next song came out almost a decade ago. “I just wanted to thank everyone in here who showed me that love and support over these last ten years. It means the f*cking world to me. And if you’ll have me, I’d like to play my only good song.” He then performed “White Iverson”.
The concert seemed to fly by from there, despite the 25-song setlist. Before I knew it we were at the end of the main set. The pyrotechnics during “rockstar” were incredible! Post Malone then dedicated the next song to everyone in Rice-Eccles Stadium. From the first beat, everyone knew we were in for a special moment as the sea of people were glowing in yellow lights for “Sunflower”. It was a perfect way to end the main set.
As we waited for the encore, a billboard lifted up from the back of the stadium. The billboard advertised The BIG ASS TOUR. The signs disappeared and sure enough, Post Malone was inside the billboard giving a show to the fans who for the most part of the concert had the seats furthest back from the stage. People rushed to be as close as they could. I love it when artists do this. He performed his final song of the night, “Congratulations”.
“I remember at the beginning everyone called me a one-hit wonder. They said ‘You’ll never be in a billboard in Salt Lake City in Rice-Eccles Stadium.’ Tongue and cheek stated, “They said that specifically.”
He then told the audience, “I just want to say that the love that you all have shared me. The gift of your heart that you’ve shared me is the most amazing thing that I’ve experienced in my whole life. I’ve been wanting to do this for as long as I can f*cking remember. I guess what I’m trying to f*cking say is don’t give up on your f*cking dreams. Chase your passion. Do What you f*cking love. Don’t let anyone f*cking stop you from doing what you f*cking love. Don’t let anyone ever try to drag you down. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you can’t do what you want to do. Just f*cking do it and do it your way.”
The audience roared! As the song concluded pyro and fireworks flew above the stadium as Post Malone climbed out of the billboard and walked through the crowd to the stage.
When he got to the stage Posty “Thank you so f*cking much for sharing this evening with me. And thank you for kicking this f*cking tour off Bad Ass. We appreciate it more than we can say.” You’d think that would be the end but Post Malone made his way to the railing and took selfies and greeted fans for quite some time. It was an amazing kick-off to what is for sure going to be a successful tour. Salt Lake City was the perfect place to start things off. Good luck to all the other cities. Hope you can match what happened here.