Buffalo Traffic Jam at Liberty Hall, Lawrence KS (2026-09-15)

Luckiest Man Alive
Comfort in Misery
Can’t Let Go
Too Young to Die
Hanging On Hope
Strangers Now
Buyin Dirt
Forgot Your Roots
Bones
Older
Pictures of You
I Don’t Care
Afraid to Fall in Love Again

Black Eyed Susie
Fool’s Gold
Rescue Me

9/17 Pryor Creek Music Festivals Pryor, OK
9/19 Buckhead Theatre Atlanta, GA *
9/20 The Mill & Mine Knoxville, TN
9/23 House of Blues Chicago, IL *
9/24 Saint Andrew’s Hall Detroit, MI*
9/26 Kentucky Exposition Center Louisville, KY
9/27 Roxian Theatre Mckees Rocks, PA
9/30 Irving Plaza New York, NY*
10/1 Irving Plaza New York, NY*
10/2 9:30 Club Washington, DC*
10/5 Roadrunner Boston, MA*
10/8 London Music Hall London, ON
10/9 Danforth Music Hall Toronto, ON*
10/10 Danforth Music Hall Toronto, ON
10/12 The Bronson Ottawa, ON
10/13 Théâtre Beanfield Montréal, QC*
10/16 Wolf Pen Creek Park College Station, TX
10/27 The Tuning Fork Auckland,NZ
10/28 The Tuning Fork Auckland,NZ*
10/31 Metro Theatre Sydney, AUS*
11/1 Metro Theatre Sydney, AUS*
11/4 The Fortitude Music Hall Brisbane,AUS*
11/7 Northcote Theatre Northcote, AUS*
11/8 Northcote Theatre, Northcote, AUS*
11/10 Metropolis Fremantle, AUS
11/11 Metropolis Fremantle, AUS
11/20 St. Pete Country Fest 2026 St. Petersburg, FL
11/21 Apopka Amphitheater Apopka, FL
12/11 The Wilma Missoula, MT*
12/12 The ELM Bozeman, MT*
12/13 The ELM Bozeman, MT*
12/16 The Complex Salt Lake City, UT
12/19 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO*
12/20 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO
1/7 Out Of The Blue 2027 Cancun,MX
3/29 Fållan Johanneshov, SWE
3/30 Rockefeller Oslo, NOR
4/1 Gruenspan Hamburg, GER
4/2 Carlswerk Victoria, Köln,GER
4/5 Paradiso Amsterdam, NL*
4/6 Trabendo Paris,FR
4/8 O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester, UK
4/10 O2 Forum Kentish Town London, UK*
4/11 O2 Forum Kentish Town London, UK
4/13 Barrowland Ballroom Glasgow, Scotland*
4/14 Barrowland Ballroom Glasgow, Scotland
4/16 The National Stadium Dublin, IE*
4/17 The National Stadium Dublin, IE

* = sold out

No fool’s gold here – this was the real deal!

On a hot and steamy night inside the walls of a very sold-out show in downtown Lawrence, Buffalo Traffic Jam more than returned the energy the Liberty Hall crowd was sending them, for a memorable first-time area appearance.

The rising Montana-based country-folk duo composed of Frankie Cassidy and Nathan Ross has only been a pair for less than three years but is now riding a rocket ship of success since informally first playing together in their Montana State University college dorm room.

Their debut full-length is Pictures of You, a 14-song collection that lyrically features varying key themes in the pair’s post-grad world- from memories and grief, to love and loss and growing older, to deciding what’s best and comes next, with the album’s title track directly inspired by the loss of Cassidy’s grandmother.

To adapt to the bigger venue tour, the pair has added a full band to able to play them in a larger scope, though the intimate framework of the songs themselves are still retained and were not diluted with the additional instruments.

And though warm and a little sweaty (it’s still regularly in the 90s outside… in mid-Sept), the crowd was ready; not only as a result of the two support acts’ sets, but even loudly singly along to the music played between acts- “Sweet Caroline”, Take Me Home, Country Roads”, “Mr. Brightside”, “Family Tradition,” and more (so, props to whoever arranged those playlists).

The band opened with “Luckiest Man Alive” from the new record, with Cassidy singing, “All my life, I’ve been tearing apart at the seams, I’m the luckiest, I’m the luckiest man” which could also refer to the sudden fame and playing to crowds of increasing size, but there’s already some depth in their song catalog, as only about half of the new record was played.

The darker “Too Young to Die” began acoustically and calm before the accumulating combination of mandolin, piano and rhythm built the song up like a precision tower and “Hanging on Hope” also felt ascending, gradually gathering itself into an anthemic forceful end.

2024’s “Bones’ was described as an “old” song (now, we feel old!) and cheers rose when opener Lydia Maes came back out mid-set, to play piano on a stark and heartfelt track with just Cassidy.

The main set ended as the new album does, with “Afraid to Fall in Love Again” and its emotional openness about the insecurity of going down a potential path that was previously a failure.

The three-song encore began with “Black Eyed Susie” from last year’s sophomore EP and then was followed by their viral and breakthrough hit, “Fool’s Gold,” which has garnered the pair 130 million streams, and counting. They commented how loud the crowd at their previous show, in Cheyenne, WY was during the song, and dared the Lawrence crowd to be even louder, which was quickly obliged.

After that challenge was accepted, the band ended the night with “Rescue Me” described as the first song the pair ever wrote, and which they released as a standalone single in 2024. The band looked surprised and pleased at the extended applause and pledged to always return to Lawrence, which drew an even bigger response.

(Too) many of Lawrence’s streets are still a plethora of backups and ‘cone zones’ but this is one ‘traffic jam’ we’re more than happy to be caught up in.

Playing only their seventh show as a band, the folk trio with Boston roots, Center Mid took on the ‘center mid’ set of the evening, emerging to note the venue was the most beautiful stage they’ve played on, to date.

The trio of lifelong friends (since the age of four)- Stephen Higgins, Scott Kaplan, and Matt Lowerre started playing backyard jams in the Boston suburbs, but each member soon moved elsewhere – Higgins (sporting a KU cap for the night) is now based in Boulder, CO; guitarist Kaplan is based in Cambridge, MA; and banjo player Lowerre headed west to LA.

Their first single, “Cross Country Blues,” was released in May and caught the ear of the headliner, who then asked them to join this current tour. The band worked in their cover of Mt. Joy’s “Silver Linings” which drew cheers, as did the changing the lyric in their song “White Knuckles” to set the song in Kansas. The band is literally just getting started, so assume you’ll be hearing plenty more to come. And for those in the crowd, if/when they blow up, you can claim you were there, early-on.​

Opening the evening was singer and multi-instrumentalist, Lydia Maes, a Nashville-based native of Prior Lake, MN, in support of her debut full-length, Willow. Her own version of the indie-folk she plays, adds a larger sound with Maes mostly playing saxophone, violin, and some piano- the likely result of growing up in a very musical family, and some of her lyrics reflecting that Minnesota upbringing.

While the set did feature mostly originals (like “Woodworking Woman” and the album’s title track), she ended things (before later joining the headliner) with a cover of America’s big radio hit from 1971, “A Horse with No Name” which had her moving between violin and sax.​