Friday Night saw a rather youthful audience at Minneapolis’ Historic State Theatre. R5s “Sometime Last Night Tour”, on its final leg, had reached the Twin Cities supported by Ryland Lynch and MAX. The mood at the pretty much sold out theater was quite upbeat and energetic. A contest to meet R5 by Shazamming their new single “Darkside” was running, the merch booths did brisk business and a plethora of LED gimmicks were visible.
Starting off the evening was a DJ set by Ryland Lynch the youngest member of the Lynch family. Ryland is not the kind of DJ who hides behind the turntable, he moved quite a bit, jumped various stage props and ventured close to the audience. Starting his set with a Sia song, he had the crowd jumping and singing along in no time.
Next up was MAX, the musical alter ego of NYC actor Max Schneider. His set managed the seemingly impossible, up the energy level in the room. His songs include a few covers but mostly material from 2015’s “NWL” and his upcoming album “Hell’s Kitchen Angel”. MAX has quite the stage presence with some serious dance moves. Overall a very talented young artist and a great set.
R5 (if I need to explain it at all……) is a hugely popular sibling group out of LA who gained their following through YouTube and the Disney Channel. And judging by the glowing faces, the tightly clutched merch bags and the level of cheers each time something indicated that the show got closer, popular may be an understatement. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not judging or being a smart ass scribing in my notebook. R5 are legit, there is talent, there is some very catchy music and the show is spectacular. It is all packaged to together very well, just like your “secret, indie, hipster band”.
The lights went out, “We are family” started playing, and the cheers went through the roof. Riker, Rocky, Rydel and Ross Lynch and drummer Ellington Ratliff took to the stage. Ross Lynch has the rock star stage presence to live up to his fans’ expectations. R5 played their show with plenty of close crowd contact. The set list was a mix of material from their 2 albums with their new single “Darkside” being played as well. The siblings each got some time at the microphone and experience from the long tour clearly showed off in their chemistry. Overall this was a great show that was perfectly geared towards R5’s core audience but also made sure any parent dragged along had a good time.
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