The Monument's Big Week: Luke Bryan, the Goo Goo Dolls, and One Very Weird Al

For most of the year, the arena at The Monument is where the Black Hills goes to see the acts too big for everywhere else — and for one stretch at the turn of the month, it's stacking three of them back to back. The tentpole is Luke Bryan, whose "Word On The Street Tour" plays the Summit Arena on Thursday, July 30. Bracketing him: "Weird Al" Yankovic on July 24, and the Goo Goo Dolls with Neon Trees on Saturday, Aug. 1.

Let's talk about the Bryan show, because it's the one that fills the building. This is peak arena country, and Bryan is one of the last reliable practitioners of the form — a headliner who can sell out a 10,000-seat room in a market this size and send everyone home sweaty and happy. "Word On The Street" leans into exactly the kind of good-time, hooks-forward set the Summit Arena was built to hold: big lights, bigger choruses, and a crowd that knows every word to songs they'd never admit to streaming.

The context that makes this run notable is the Summit Arena itself. Opened in 2021 as the modern anchor of the Monument complex — the campus locals spent decades calling the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center — it gave Rapid City something it had long lacked: a room genuinely competitive for national touring routing. A market of this size does not get a Luke Bryan by accident; it gets one because there's finally a building that can hold him and a promoter confident it'll sell. Three arena-scale shows in nine days is the payoff on that investment.

The range across the three nights is the real story. A parody accordion legend, a stadium-country titan, and a pair of alt-rock survivors whose ballads have outlived three format cycles — that's not a coherent brand, and it isn't supposed to be. It's a regional arena doing what regional arenas do: cast wide, book what tours, and trust that in a market drawing from a hundred miles in every direction, there's a crowd for each.

Why it matters: an arena that can consistently land this tier of act is what keeps Black Hills music fans from having to drive to Denver or Minneapolis to see a name. Every sold-out Summit Arena night is an argument to the next tour's routing agent that Rapid City is worth the stop. Shows beget shows. So if Bryan's your speed — or Al's, or the Goo Goo Dolls' — buy the ticket. You're not just seeing a concert; you're voting for the next one.

Sources: The Monument (official); Summit Arena at The Monument (Ticketmaster venue); Summit Arena concert listings (Concertfix)