Bryan Adams Plays Moody Center Tonight: The Parking Garage to Skip and the Rock Hall Duo Opening for Him

Bryan Adams plays Moody Center tonight, Tuesday, July 28, at 7:30 PM, with Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo opening. According to ATX Things analysis of the venue's own listings, tickets are still on sale in Austin, Texas, and the biggest planning mistake is picking the wrong parking garage.

This is the "Roll With the Punches" tour, named for Adams' 16th studio album, released last August. He's 45 years into a career that started with a self-titled 1980 debut and broke wide with 1983's "Cuts Like a Knife." Benatar and Giraldo aren't a warm-up act tacked on to sell more seats — they're a married rock duo the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame itself inducted in November 2022, and they're playing every date on this run.

Moody Center has hosted the bulk of this year's biggest touring names — see our set-times and parking guide to The Neighbourhood's Moody Center show for how the venue's flow works on a packed night — and this fall's Moody Center calendar is stacked with arena rock and pop through Labor Day.

What Time Does the Show Actually Start?

Moody Center's own event page lists three separate clocks for tonight, and mixing them up is the easiest way to miss the opener:

The venue notes these are subject to change, so if you're cutting it close, check the event page one more time before you leave the house. Moody Center is at 2001 Robert Dedman Drive, on the UT campus just east of I-35 — not downtown, and not the Domain.

Who's Actually Opening — And Why It's a Bigger Deal Than "Special Guest"

Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo get billed as "special guests" on the tour poster, which undersells them. Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "Love Is a Battlefield" were Top 20 hits in the early '80s, and Giraldo has been her guitarist, producer, and co-writer since her 1979 debut album — he's on every record she's ever made. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them together on November 5, 2022, and they closed that ceremony with a three-song set of "All Fired Up," "Love Is a Battlefield," and "Heartbreaker."

That's the part worth knowing before you walk in: this isn't Bryan Adams plus a warm-up band nobody asked for. It's two acts with their own arena-headliner résumés sharing one bill, and if you show up right at 7:30 thinking you'll catch "the opener" for ten minutes, you're underestimating how much of the night belongs to them too.

Can You Still Get Tickets Tonight?

As of this morning, tickets remain listed as available through both Ticketmaster and Moody Center's own site — the venue's page still reads "Tickets on sale now!" with no sold-out notice. General on-sale for this tour opened back on March 27 at 10 AM, so most of the obvious seats have had four months to move, but arena shows this size routinely have day-of inventory that opens up as holds release. There's no listed age restriction.

What ATX Things can't responsibly tell you is an exact price — ticket marketplaces personalize pricing by section, timing, and demand in ways that change hour to hour, and quoting a number this morning could be wrong by tonight. Check the Ticketmaster event page or moodycenteratx.com directly before you commit to going.

If tonight's not your night, our running list of what's happening in Austin's nightlife and music scene tracks the next few weeks of arena and club shows worth planning around, including the free giveaway seats for Olivia Rodrigo's ACL taping.

The Parking Move Locals Already Know

Moody Center's own parking page has a warning that's easy to miss if you've been to the venue before and are running on autopilot: Manor Garage, the closest ADA-accessible parking to the arena, is pre-pay only on event nights — there's no drive-up payment lane anymore. If you roll up assuming you can pay at the gate like you could a year or two ago, you'll be turned around while a concert crowd builds behind you.

The bigger headache is the roads around it, not the garage itself. The venue sits in the middle of an active construction zone: the I-35 southbound upper-deck exit to MLK Jr. Blvd (exit 235A) is now permanently closed — use the lower deck instead — and the MLK Bridge itself is under separate reconstruction, so Moody Center's own guidance is to avoid it entirely tonight. Between the ongoing I-35 work and a sold-adjacent arena crowd, "leave early" isn't boilerplate advice here — it's the difference between parked by 6 and still circling at 7:15.

What's Bryan Adams Actually Playing?

Adams has kept this tour's setlist anchored in the songs people came for — "Summer of '69," "Run to You," "Cuts Like a Knife" — while working newer "Roll With the Punches" material into the middle of the set rather than front-loading it. Recent stops on this run have also featured an acoustic stretch built around "Straight From the Heart" and "Can't Stop This Thing We Started." Adams has always played off crowd response night to night, so treat any setlist you find online as a strong guess, not a guarantee.

What Locals Should Know

• Doors 6:30, show 7:30 — the venue's own listing, subject to change; double-check before you leave.
• Pre-pay Manor Garage now, or budget extra time for a garage further out.
• Avoid the MLK Bridge and the closed I-35 southbound exit 235A; use the lower-deck exit instead.
• No confirmed sellout as of this morning — tickets are still listed as available on Ticketmaster and moodycenteratx.com.
• Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo play the full set with him, not a token 15-minute warm-up.

FAQ

What time do doors open for Bryan Adams at Moody Center tonight? Moody Center's own event listing has parking opening at 5:30 PM, doors at 6:30 PM, and the show starting at 7:30 PM Central, with all times subject to change.

Is Bryan Adams sold out at Moody Center? Not as of this morning — the venue's page and Ticketmaster both still list tickets as available, though inventory and pricing can shift throughout the day.

Who is opening for Bryan Adams in Austin? Pat Benatar and her longtime guitarist and producer, Neil Giraldo — the married duo the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted together in 2022 — are the special guests on every date of this tour, including tonight's Austin stop.

Where do I park for a Moody Center concert? The venue recommends pre-purchasing a spot through ParkWhiz. Manor Garage, the closest ADA lot, no longer accepts drive-up payment on event nights — you must pre-pay.

What songs is Bryan Adams playing on this tour? Recent shows on the "Roll With the Punches" tour have mixed classics like "Summer of '69," "Run to You," and "Cuts Like a Knife" with an acoustic stretch and newer album cuts — but Adams varies the set night to night.

We're watching whether tonight sells out before showtime — follow @austintexasthings for the update, and for tomorrow's read on how it went.