The Tennessee Kid is out here dethroning another son of the Volunteer State.
If you’re not familiar with comedian Nate Bargatze, the Nashville native is one of the funniest guys out there right now. His dry, deadpan delivery and unique, self-deprecating style of storytelling leaves me literally laughing out loud any time I watch his stand-up.
Nate has been performing stand-up since 2002, and in that time he’s made regular appearances on the late-night TV circuit, including The Tonight Show and Conan. He’s also got two full-length specials on Netflix right now, The Tennessee Kid and The Greatest Average American, and he’s the host of the popular Nateland Podcast.
But this weekend, Nate accomplished something that he said he only dreamed about when he was younger: He headlined Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
And not only did Nate get to headline his hometown arena, but he sold it out – and set a new arena attendance record in the process.
For this Saturday’s show, Nate drew a crowd of 19,365 to Bridgestone Arena, breaking the previously-held record of 19,292 that was set just last month by Morgan Wallen during his free album release show to celebrate the release of his new album One Thing At a Time.
Speaking on his record-breaking crowd, Nate said that it’s an accomplishment that’s going to take awhile to set in:
“When I started comedy, I would find myself daydreaming about coming home to play Bridgestone, but never really thinking it would happen. It will take me a while to wrap my head around it. All the people coming to the show, I can never repay you for allowing me to get to this point. Thank you, Thank you, and Thank you.”
And he also ended his set with a song that he said reminded him of home back when he was starting out in stand-up comedy – a song from a fellow Tennessee native, Kenny Chesney’s “Back Where I Come From.”
Not bad for an ol’ Tennessean.
