You’ve heard me say it before. As a rule, I generally don’t cover opening acts. There have been a couple of notable exceptions, and I’ve certainly done feature stories on opening acts I’ve been particularly impressed with. But by and large I don’t shoot and review them.
Well, here comes another of those notable exceptions. And this one, my dear friends, looks to be the most notable of the notable.
Last week I covered three shows on back to back to back nights. On Wednesday I covered Samantha Fish at the Phil Long Music Hall in Colorado Springs. On Thursday I covered Tab Benoit at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood. And on Friday I again covered Samantha Fish, this time at the Boulder Theater in, well, you know.
Those three shows had a number of things in common, but one that kind of snuck in under the radar is that the opening act, all three nights, was The Zac Schulze Gang. A bit odd, that, having the same opening act for different artists. But that’s the way it played out.
Hailing from Gillingham, Kent (that’s in the UK, if geography isn’t your thing), The Zac Schulze Gang features Zac Schulze on guitar and lead vocals, his brother Ben—two years older—on drums, and Anthony “Ant” Greenwell on bass. At their core, they’re a quintessential blues-rock power trio, drawing inspiration from the likes of Rory Gallagher, Dr. Feelgood, and Nine Below Zero. But there’s much more at work: punk comes through in both the music and the band’s near-manic stage energy, while their riff-heavy attack is reminiscent of mid-70’s classic rock acts like Foghat, Humble Pie, and Status Quo.
I’m not going to tell you that The Zac Schulze Gang is one of the best opening acts I’ve ever seen. No, I’m going to go for broke on this one. The Zac Schulze Gang is one of the best acts I’ve ever seen, PERIOD. All three nights, they were absolutely incredible. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen a band that literally took my breath away… that had me uttering superlatives in the middle of their performance… that simply blew my socks off. Absolutely. Freaking. Incredible.
As a writer, I take pride in trying to paint vivid pictures with words. When I review live performances, my goal is to place readers right beside me—pressed against the stage and caught up in the action. I hope to give those who missed the show a real sense of what it was like, and those who were there a visceral reminder of what they experienced.
This time, though, I may be outmatched—not because I’ve lost my touch, but because I can’t seem to find words big enough to capture what The Zac Schulze Gang delivered on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. But damned if I’m not going to try.
The setlist was the same all three nights: seven songs in roughly thirty-five minutes. They opened with two originals—“High Roller,” from their 2025 full-length studio debut, Straight to It, and “Woman,” a 2024 single. The remaining five songs were covers, moving through styles that included slow* blues with searing guitar work, punk, blues rock, and classic rock.
(The asterisk after “slow” is there because very little about the band’s set actually felt slow. Once again, words fall short. “High energy” barely scratches the surface of their stage presence—but more on that later.)
Were there highlights? Absolutely—seven of them, as the setlist above makes clear. I’m not trying to be cute or clever; I’m dead serious. The band’s thirty-five-ish-minute set played like one long highlight reel. From the opening blast of “High Roller” to the final seconds of “Oh Well,” they were full throttle. When they left the stage, you could almost feel the crowd exhale as everyone tried to catch their breath.
Each member of the band is exceptionally gifted. Ben Schulze is a force behind the drums, playing with a wild intensity that fuses controlled chaos with serious technical skill. On bass, Greenwell is a rhythmic powerhouse who pushes the instrument to the front rather than simply holding down the groove. His two solos were showcases of funk and fluidity, and his lead vocal turn on “Voodoo Chile” landed with real power.
And then there’s the Gang’s leader, Zac Schulze. On stage, Schulze is a true tour de force, pairing first-rate musicianship with raw, kinetic energy that borders on manic. As a guitarist, he is remarkably versatile, moving easily from dark, atmospheric passages to crushing riffs and blistering, high-voltage solos. His vocals are just as strong, with the range and power to carry a song’s emotional weight or drive it to its peak. His stage presence is commanding but often playful, recalling the infectious, high-spirited charisma of Billie Joe Armstrong. He is not merely a musician; he is the magnetic center of the live experience.
As impressive as the music, musicianship, and manic stage energy are, The Gang’s greatest strengths may be their chemistry and the obvious fun they’re having on stage. The bond between the Schulze brothers is easy to grasp: they’ve played together since their teens and seem to know each other instinctively. Greenwell has found the same wavelength, fitting in with Zac and Ben as naturally as if he’d always been there. On stage, the three operate like a finely tuned machine.
That sense of fun is unmistakable. These guys are living their dream, and it shows in every move they make on stage, in the playful way they connect with each other and the audience, and in their seemingly endless energy. With Zac, it comes through just as clearly offstage, as I saw firsthand talking to him after Wednesday’s show, before Thursday’s, and again after Friday’s. You can see it in his eyes and his smile, and hear it in his voice. He is a young man of tremendous talent, working hard at something he loves, already making big waves and clearly headed for even bigger things.
And that brings me back to where I started. The Zac Schulze Gang may have been the opening act on the bill, but nothing about their performances felt like a warm-up. Across three nights, in three different rooms, they played with the confidence, urgency, and fire of a band that knows exactly who they are and where they’re going. They didn’t just get the crowd ready for the headliner; they made themselves impossible to ignore.
I went into the week expecting to cover Samantha Fish and Tab Benoit. I came out of it knowing I had just witnessed one of the most exciting young bands I’ve seen in years. The next time The Zac Schulze Gang comes through town, I don’t expect them to be anybody’s opener. And I’ll be thinking I’d better grab my tickets early, because this is a band I don’t want to miss.
Story and photos by Rick Witt www.rickwittphotography.com
