Braxton Keith, Gavin Adcock, Treaty Oak Revival, and Concert Behavior

Braxton Keith performs for actual country fans, Treaty Oak Revival sprays 14-year-olds with beer at the Two Step Inn Fest


At a free show in downtown Gilmer, TX on Saturday, April 5th, fast-rising neotraditionalist country star Braxton Keith was forced to stop down the show when people started hurling beer cans at the stage, including one narrowly missing hitting him in the head while he was performing. After trying to play through the situation, eventually Braxton had enough. As he said in a now viral Instagram/Tik-Tok post,

“Hey listen, pause this shit. Pause this shit right now. Hey listen up. I didn’t come here to get beer cans thrown at me, alright? This isn’t a godddamn Gavin Adcock concert, okay? Don’t be throwing f–king beers out here. These people at the front are getting wet up here and it’s gonna piss them off, and it’s gonna piss me off.”

Keith continued, “This little girl right here has never been to a country concert before and it’s her first damn time, okay? We’re gonna have a good show for her, okay? I just want to get myself clear. I am not Gavin Adcock. I’m Braxton mo’fukin Keith, okay? Alright, that’s what I thought. We came here to listen to country music. Hit it boys!”

At the Two Step Inn festival April 5th and 6th, Gavin Adcock played Saturday evening and Braxton Keith played Sunday afternoon. Treaty Oak Revival also performed Sunday afternoon, and they also deserve to be part of this conversation.

Sometimes the term “degenerates” can be employed in music, and either used as a compliment, or taken as one. Please don’t mistake this as being one of those cases. Treaty Oak Revival and Gavin Adcock is music to soundtrack drunk 17-year-olds whipping beers cans at the stage and beaning your 13-year-old daughter in the back of the head at 3:15 pm.

That’s what I witnessed at the Two Step Inn last weekend. That’s what these bands are. Then I got beaned by a flying beer can myself, right before the lead singer of Treaty Oak Revival opened a beer, and started flinging it all over the crowd during the second song of the set.


By the way, did security intervene, or even discourage people from this behavior? No, they didn’t. But when Alan Jackson encouraged people to dance in front of the stage in the security area, they shut the whole performance down. Nobody got hurt during the Alan Jackson set. People did during Treaty Oak Revival.

I only saw the first portion of the Gavin Adcock show at Two Step Inn, but witnessed similar behavior. I had been warned to not go into the “pit” (i.e. the space between the audience and the stage where photographers are allowed) because I would get doused with beer and whiskey. Sure enough, colleagues who did try to get photos walked out with ruined camera equipment and worries of getting deweys headed home from reeking of alcohol.

The crowds at Two Step Inn were much more behaved for Diplo and even Nelly. In fact, if you went to a Florida Georgia Line show back in the day, or even a Brantley Gilbert show now, you wouldn’t see this kind of behavior. If you tried this kind of stuff at a heavy metal concert, you’d get your face stomped in. Not even Nickelback and their fans behave this way.

There is a tradition at the Larry Joe Taylor Fest in Texas during the Roger Creager performance and the song “Love” for the crowd to crack beers and shower each other. But they’re not throwing mostly full beers at the performers or their fellow concert goers, and everyone participating is doing so fully knowing what’s going on. There are similar traditions throughout music.

But even worse, after Treaty Oak Revival played on the Two Step Inn main stage on Sunday, the rest of the day was pretty much shot until Sturgill Simpson scared the vermin away with actual music. Feeling permissive to douse themselves and everyone else in beer, Treaty Oak Revival and Gavin Adcock fans were whipping beer cans at the stage and at each other well after their sets. Ryan Bingham’s guitar player had to swerve to avoid a beer slung at him that ended up spilling out over his pedal board.

This is not what we built the independent country music scene to be. We built it to be better, and a healthier alternative to the mainstream. Gavin Adcock and Treaty Oak Revival should not be booked at these kinds of festivals, or be spoken about in the same breath as other independent country performers. It’s some weird version of country-tinged ass rock.

The dumb, misogynistic guitar player for Treaty Oak Revival


Maybe if you had a festival featuring Treaty Oak Revival, Gavin Adcock, and headlined by the Wet Cigarette of Music himself, Kid Rock (which is the tree this garbage falls from), folks could all pour beer on each other and throw up in their dad’s cyber truck as they drunk drive home to their little heart’s content. But performing at the same festival as Tracy Byrd, Sammy Kershaw, Braxton Keith, Noeline Hoffman, and Alan Jackson, it was a disgrace. And these artists are a disgrace.

“But Trig! I was going through a really tough time in my life, and Treaty Oak Revival/Gavin Adcock really helped me get through it!” Yeah, that’s because you were listening to Treaty Oak Revival and Gavin Adcock, which means you were screwing up. Don’t listen to them at all, and your problems will probably be solved. It’s music for people who consistently make stupid decisions, and then blame their situations on bad luck and everybody else. That’s what much of the music is about.

“But Trig! Treaty Oak Revival and Gavin Adcock are super popular. Treaty Oak Revival even had a bigger crowd at Two Step Inn than the headliner Sturgill Simpson. You said so yourself!” Yes, because the masses love shit. And that’s what this is. This is mindless entertainment for young souls that’s even worse than most mainstream country. Along with throwing beers at each other like an Idiocracy segment, you’ll never see a group of fans experience a concert through the filter of their cell phone screens like I witnessed during the Treaty Oak Revival set.

And the people that listen to this music are literal children. They’re kids, or they’re children in adult form. Some people left after Treaty Oak Revival because the entire mood of the fest turned angry and negative, and folks could not stop throwing stuff in the crowd.

Treaty Oak Revival audience at the Two Step Inn


For Braxton Keith’s part, since he’s a gentlemen and an adult, he tried to take the high road.

In the caption of his now viral video, Braxton said, “This is unacceptable behavior for any concert including my brother @gavinadcockmusic. Nobody likes beer and trash getting thrown at them. I love live music and when given the opportunity to speak up about unruliness in the concert community, I will protect my audience, band, crew, equipment, and most importantly, the integrity of live performance experiences.”

How did Gavin Adcock respond? After Country Central shared a video of the Braxton Keith moment in Gilmer, TX, Adcock responded, “Maybe he should learn how to handle HIS fans without bringing someone else into it. I do it every night without bringing anybody else up. Welcome to the big leagues kid.”

But the only kid here is Gavin Adcock, who despite his characterization, is permissive of this beer-slinging behavior by slinging beer on his fans as part of his stage show, just like Treaty Oak Revival. Gavin Adcock is a man child.

The sad part about all of this is that if you listen to the recorded music of Gavin Adcock and Treaty Oak Revival, they’ve got some decent songs. But their brand live is to be purposely idiotic.

And by the way, don’t be misled by what’s happening here, especially with Gavin Adcock, who leans into the whole “I’m a drunk and I like it!” attitude. This is marketing. And it’s marketing targeted to young boys, and girls who are ignored by their dads because it makes them feel like they’re part of the adult world. But it is incredibly imbecilic, distinctly adolescent, and young soul behavior. Any self-respecting 24-year-old is not going to be pouring beer on their head like it’s their first time getting drunk.

Heretofore, I have avoided saying anything about Gavin Adcock and Treaty Oak Revival, negative or otherwise, out of respect for their success through independent channels, and because when it comes to recorded music, their is much worse out there to worry about. And because yes, all of this hand-wringing over them runs the risk of being used in their marketing itself.

But after experiencing their music live, I can’t be more repulsed by this stupid, aggressively immature, and entirely embarrassing side of music that needs to be repudiated and cordoned off from the rest of independent country before it infects the whole thing like a bad rash. Get this Whiskey Riff-peddled trash the hell out of my music world.

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