|
Echosmith at First Ave Poster
Echosmith Setlist
The Score Setlist
Tour Dates
04/15 Delmar Hall St. Louis, MO
04/17 Old National Centre Indianapolis, IN 04/18 Magic Stick Detroit, MI 04/19 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH 04/20 House of Blues Cleveland, OH 04/22 Phoenix Concert Hall Toronto, ON 04/26 Royale Boston, MA 04/27 The TLA Philadelphia, PA 04/28 Irving Plaza New York, NY 04/29 9:30 Club Washington, DC 05/01 Variety Playhouse Atlanta, GA 05/02 3rd & Lindsey Nashville, TN 05/04 Granada Theatre Dallas, TX 05/05 White Oak Music Hall Houston, TX 05/06 Emo’s Austin, TX 05/08 Marquee Theatre Tempe, AZ 05/11 Music Box San Diego, CA 05/12 The Fonda Theatre Los Angeles, CA Read More
|
Outside, Friday the 13th was living up to its dubious reputation, but inside…
…the fortunate crowd inside First Avenue’s Mainroom were treated to a positive and energetic set from Los Angeles electro-pop siblings, Echosmith.
On the first of two Friday the 13th dates this calendar year, winter refused to leave- chilling temperatures again, with winds howling, and a wintery mix falling that would last all weekend, culminating in a record-setting twenty inches of mid-April snow, but the all-ages crowd safe inside were instead feeling the warmth of all of the acts performing.
The three-act bill began with Plano, TX singer-songwriter Jena Rose, who began playing piano at five, writing songs at nine, and has already toured with Plain White T’s, AJR, R5, and Sabrina Carpenter. Oh, and she just only turned seventeen, but is obviously already mature and stage-seasoned, releasing her most recent EP, Reasons (Rose Productions via PledgeMusic), on March 30 , led by the title track single.
Rose did an admirable job engaging and introducing herself to the audience with her short set, which included the dance-charting ‘Sweet Love’ and ending it with how she began- with her 2016 debut single, ‘Paper Walls’. With a bright and long future ahead, Rose is worth watching to see if success finds her as much as some of her influences- Sara Bareilles, Leona Lewis, and Adele.
LA by-way-of NYC indie pop/rock band The Score was up next, in support of their major label debut, last fall’s Atlas (Republic Records)- a band who we’ve mentioned, but hadn’t yet seen live, visiting here for the third time in just six months (previously opening for Blue October and headlining next door at the 7th St Entry).
Actually a duo (Eddie Anthony and Edan Dover, but filled out with a live guitarist and drummer), the band plays a blend of percussion-propelled, radio-ready anthemic songs, similar in scope to Imagine Dragons (their ‘Revolution’ sounds like a sequel to ID’s ‘Radioactive’), with 2016’s ‘Unstoppable’ making the biggest impact so far, featured in the Power Rangers movie, on Fox and The World Series of Poker, and a recent Jeep commercial.
Bright neon lights beamed from behind the stage and the throb of an electronic bass beat introduced Echosmith to the stage for their seventy-minute headlining set. The band began with a confetti cannon blast and the new ‘18’, from their EP, Inside a Dream (Warner Bros Records) with the Sierota siblings- Sydney (vocals, keys), Noah (bass) and Graham (drums) positioned closest to the stage, with an additional keyboardist and guitarist Josh Murty towards the back.
The band itself has some recent growing pains as band members leave their teenage years and enter young adulthood, endured losing their original guitarist and oldest sibling, Jamie in 2016 (to concentrate on his wife and newborn son) and delayed their second album, to instead issue an EP last fall, with full-length expected later this year.
Their uplifting sound remains intact however- an addictive, neo-new wave influenced blend of pop anchored by vocalist Sierota’s smooth delivery and the band’s young exuberance and ability to connect in concert, with fans in their age group.
After a bubbly ‘Come Together’ (the lead track from 2013’s breakout Talking Dreams) vocalist Sierota split the crowd (of mostly teens, tweens, and parents) into right and left, each singing “right now” on cue to the new ‘Future Me’, a song Sydney sings to herself to reassure that “who I wanna be tomorrow is who I am right now”. The band even brought out their concert -touring mom, Linda to take a group photo before the platinum-selling ‘Bright’, ending the song with a verse from a Death Cab for Cutie cover as a duet by Sydney and Noah.
The new ‘Over My Head’ is evidence of the band’s evolved songwriting maturity, ‘Get Into My Car’ doesn’t evoke Billy Ocean as much as something from the 80’s soundtrack Visionquest, and the band directly showed some of their sound influence with a spry Killers cover.
Fittingly, the last song from the main set was ‘Goodbye’ from the EP, Sydney confidently singing, “When you finally find yourself, tell him I said goodbye” but the band would quickly return for a one-song encore- “a song for the outcasts” and their biggest hit to date, ‘Cool Kids’ with kids (cool and otherwise) in the crowd all singing along, as confetti cannons blew one last time.
Superstitiously known as an unlucky day, this Friday the 13th was anything but, for the fans of Echosmith, The Score, and Jena Rose- each act delivering on a fun and engaging set to an eager crowd ignoring any outside weather elements. Every Friday the 13th should be so lucky.
(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Comments