Leon Bridges

Ten years into his career, Leon Bridges is no stranger to big stages. He has already headlined Red Rocks, shared top billing at ACL Fest 2024, and played a previous Moody Center stop in 2022. The contrast with his last Austin appearance is striking: just last fall he staged a cash-only, three-night run at The Continental Club, one of the city’s most storied dive bars. The Continental has been a landmark since 1957, hosting everyone from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Robert Plant, and its 200-capacity room puts fans practically on top of the stage. Last night, Bridges stood on the opposite end of the spectrum at the Moody Center, Austin’s 15,000-seat arena built in 2022 with luxury suites and full-scale production. Seeing him shift between those two settings in less than a year shows how wide his reach has become.

This tour, The Crooner & The Cowboy with Charley Crockett, reinforced that point. Crockett opened with outlaw country swagger and a band that leaned into that Texas grit. By the time Bridges appeared, the energy felt split and it was difficult to tell which artist the crowd came to see. The arena was packed with cowboy hats and locals cosplaying Matthew McConaughey, giving the night a distinctly Texas character.

Bridges has often been boxed in as a crooner, but that label undersells the range of what he delivers live. His set moved between vintage soul, R&B grooves, and psychedelic stretches, with the biggest eruptions coming during his Khruangbin collaborations (“Texas Sun,” “B-Side,” “Mariella”). The Moody Center’s sound, often criticized for being too polished, gave those tracks extra punch, while quieter moments like “River” carried surprisingly well across the large space.

For fans who have not tuned in since Coming Home (2015), the growth is jarring. That debut framed Bridges as a retro-soul revivalist. A decade in, he is a versatile performer who can scale from the intimacy of The Continental Club to the scale of the Moody Center without losing himself in the process.

The night ended with Bridges and Crockett together on a Sam Cooke cover, a high note that brought the crowd together and underlined the shared roots of two Texas artists working on very different but complementary stages of their careers.

Find Leon Bridges at the following: Instagram, Facebook, and their own website of course. Their latest album Forward is streaming everywhere you scroll for music.

Words and photos: Victor Gonzalez