It feels like I’m finally getting into the concert swing after such a slow start to the year. Thankfully, Wallows had plenty of tour dates to choose from, so I saw them on a Saturday!
I also keep forgetting how rabid of a hipster fan base they have. Yes, a majority of those hipsters are female, so they still screech any time Dylan Minette so much as glances in their direction. Yes, he’s a good looking guy, but he’s no K-Pop idol. In any case, the show opened with a sleeper-sounding band called Porches. I’d only ever heard of them by name. Their set was pleasant enough on the ears, but almost every single song of their sounded exactly the same. Same tempo and everything, too! And looking at them, I would have assumed they were the most popular band on fraternity row at whatever college. If you want the poster boys for hipsters, these guys were it.
Thankfully, those were the only openers I had to bear. And most of the stage was already set to go for Wallows, so they graced the stage sooner rather than later. I’ll admit, other than listening to their latest album from a year ago, Model, once, I haven’t checked it out again. Unlike Tell Me That It’s Over, no tracks really appealed to me immediately, so I was less inclined for a re-listen. It probably also doesn’t help that my life has been consumed by K-Pop for the last year and a half. They were trying to break in during my time with ATEEZ. Fools. I was also completely unaware that they released an EP a couple of months ago. They played a song from it, but I couldn’t tell you what it was called. Definitely need to take some time to check that out.
I’m a little sad with myself for only being really familiar with half of the set list. Naturally, they were going to play a lot from the new album, so I kind of missed the mark there. And I know they toured forever on Tell Me That It’s Over, so I understand only hearing a few songs off of that. They threw in a few oldies, but otherwise, I was lost. It was refreshing to hear all of the people around me screaming the words at the top of their lungs. Maybe not for the songs that I liked, but at least they have dedicated fans. They also did a good bit of crowd work. Dylan popped down up close and personal a couple of times. And Braeden made an effort to have little personal interactions with people from the stage. He even sang as he worked his way through the crowd. And unsurprisingly, he crossed right in front of me, so that means I got two unbelievably blurry photos. Oh, well.
Overall, it was a fun show, and to me, they sound better every time I hear them. I look forward to spending more quality time with future work, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing them live again someday soon.
