Concert Review: Bad Suns

Another month in quarantine, another concert from my living room. That’s right, a whole year has passed and there is still no sign of live music on the horizon. So in the meantime, I am trying my best to support artists I like and get some version of “live” music via livestream concerts. I will say, I was very excited when after several months, Bad Suns announced they would be playing their sophomore effort, Disappear Here in its entirety!

Where their first livestream concert for Language and Perspective offered a more intimate setting, this time the band saw themselves on an actual stage just like they were putting on a typical show. I would like to think that two two venues represented where the band was at in their career when these albums were released, so that was fun! Personally, I preferred the close quarters to this because it seemed to have been filmed a bit better. Regardless though, I’ll take Bad Suns in any setting.

True to form, they played Disappear Here straight through and they sounded incredible! I will say, unlike Language and Perspective, I don’t love this album front to back, but “Disappear Here,” “Heartbreaker,” and “Swimming in the Moonlight” were superb. Even songs that I never really found myself crazy about sounded pretty amazing. Maybe all I needed to do was hear all of these tracks back to back in a live setting for me to fully appreciate them? Then, lucky for me, they ended the set with a non-album single that was released around the same time, “This Was a Home Once.” I freaking love that song and could listen to it on repeat for days! A fabulous way to end the set.

Also like before, they did a little pre-recorded bit with a new stage manager or something like that with a ridiculous name. His job was to psych the band up before they took the stage, and then berate them for sounding like the “Good” Suns at intermission. His awful flaming red mullet made it hard to take him seriously, but then they brought in Bill Billions from the first show, and that was a nice tie-in. I also really appreciated the bloopers from these segments at the end. All in all, a successful second show for Bad Suns, and I wonder how soon it will be before they decide to play Mystic Truth in full. Until next time!