Zach Bryan’s drummer made his own pro-Palestinian statement during the singer’s Gillette Stadium concert.
Nate Head performed Friday night in a white-and-tan striped Palestine soccer jersey bearing the name “Hind Rajab” and the number 5, according to reports from the show in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The 5-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in Gaza in January 2024 by the Israel Defense Forces. Head’s bandmate Noah Le Gros also showed support by wearing a green Palestine soccer jersey during the performance.
Bryan, 28, took the stage in a black T-shirt reading “Free Palestine,” with a pine tree image separating those words from “An Appeal to Heaven.” The concert marked the first of two nights at Robert Kraft’s stadium on the closing leg of Bryan’s “With Heaven on Tour.”
The statements came roughly a month after Kraft barred Macklemore from performing at the same venue. The “Thrift Shop” rapper, 43, had made pro-Palestinian remarks during Ed Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” stop at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sept. 4.
“I said, ‘Free Palestine!’ I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them,” Macklemore said during his speech that night. He also performed his 2024 protest song “Hind’s Hall,” named after Rajab.
Macklemore’s removal from the tour prompted several other opening acts to depart in solidarity. Sheeran’s two-night Gillette Stadium run was subsequently canceled due to severe weather warnings.
In the aftermath, Kraft pledged $2 million toward Palestinian relief efforts. The New England Patriots owner, 85, said Sheeran personally pushed him to act.
“Earlier today, before Macklemore challenged me to match his donation, Ed called me and asked me to commit $2 million to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis,” Kraft said in a statement. “Ed now plans to reach out to other venue owners, and our goal is to continue to work together to build bridges.”
Macklemore has since announced his “Free Palestine Tour,” with dates set for Dublin, Paris and London later this month. In announcing the trek, he addressed what he sees as a shifting cultural landscape.
“If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it’s that something has shifted over the last three years,” Macklemore wrote. “There has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now.”
He added: “It’s 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work anymore.”
The controversy at Kraft’s venue began when Macklemore’s remarks during Sheeran’s concert led to his removal from remaining US dates. The rapper’s performance of “Hind’s Hall” directly referenced the same child whose name appeared on Head’s jersey at Bryan’s show. Multiple acts leaving Sheeran’s tour in protest, combined with weather concerns, scrapped the Gillette dates entirely before Kraft’s donation and Bryan’s subsequent appearances.
Bryan’s second Gillette Stadium show is scheduled for Saturday night.