I don’t care how bad your day was yesterday. It doesn’t matter if you spent the day figuring out it has been 102 days since the last time you heard from your crush or if you had such a stressful day at work that you’re starting to question if this new job was the right choice. Last night’s show did exactly what a show is meant to do– it made you leave your baggage at the door and when you finally left, you decided to just not even pick that baggage up on your way out.
Kicking off the Wednesday night show was Yam Haus. My friend/photographer and I had walked in as the group was playing their first song and we instantly looked at each. “Yup, this is going to be a fun night!” As I took my spot towards the back of the venue and she made her way through the fairly full venue to snag some pictures, I found myself almost instantly dancing around to the beat. To say it was infectious would be an understatement. You could literally hear the smile in the singer’s voice as the group powered through their quick set and it was next to impossible not to smile back. Along with the happy-go-lucky sound was a truly charming stage presence. The members felt like the boys next door, like a best friend that you had only just met but knew it was going to turn into a life-long friendship. I don’t know how else to explain this band to you or how to portray how much I truly enjoyed their set. This is one of those bands that I will surely be dragging a car load of friends to see with me next time.
Following the truly jaw-dropping performance from Yam Haus was another band that I had never heard prior to stepping into last night’s show- Shiny Penny. Hailing from Kokomo, Indiana, Shiny Penny seems to have made great friends with the boys in headliner Whosah and they seemed truly humbled to have a chance to perform in Whosah’s hometown. With a voice that resembled that of Adam Levine (singer of Maroon 5) and a overall sound/stage show that had hints of Walk The Moon in it, Shiny Penny took the momentum that Yam Haus had gotten started and ran with it. It was more infectious music that made it impossible to stand still through and was impossible to be a grouch during. Although their overall sound and vibe seemed a little more constrained than Yam Haus’ vibe, there was no denying how much fun it was to watch this young band perform.
Closing out the night, and the reason for this show being on my radar, was local group Whosah. I’ve been watching this band for awhile now. I’ve seen them here and there and have always been stunned by their energy, sound, and all around vibe. Whosah may be a pop band but don’t let that fool you into thinking they’re generic and you can write them off or anything like that. Like the two bands that graced the stage before them, Whosah has a sound all of their own and their energy and genuine-feeling vibe, they give the audience everything they have every time and last night was no different.
Spencer, the singer, has a way of dancing awkwardly around the stage and making it look like the best dance moves ever. Watching him tends to give audience members a boost of confidence that’s needed to get them moving around even if it all just looks like a beautiful clusterfuck of people with zero dance skills. The up-beat music matches that attitude and provides the audience with a true escape from a world that can be scary and downright mean at times. Whether or not that’s what you needed last night when walking into the Entry, that’s what you got and it was beyond perfect.
Having seen Whosah a couple of times now, I thought I knew what I was going to get when it came to their set list but they completely changed it up on me. Sure, I recognized majority of the songs from seeing them previously, but they also played some new ones that have me super excited for the future of this group. One new song that absolutely stood out to me was one that Spencer played alone on stage with just his voice and a keyboard. He explained that it was about his wife (congrats to the happy couple on the recent one year anniversary) and as his wife’s friends called her out and cheered, Spencer jumped into a completely heartfelt song that showed a whole new side to this group and their style. Sure it was still happy-go-lucky and still had nothing but positive vibes about it, but the tenderness and attention to detail during the song was something that I had not seen from Whosah before and something that I definitely hope to see more of.
I left my baggage at the door when I walked into The 7th Street Entry and, because of the nature of the bands and the infectious music and positive vibes, I completely forgot to pick up that baggage on my way out.
Last night’s concert did exactly what a concert should do but rarely actually does.
