By Kristina Balboa
Both Vinyl Theatre and Finish Ticket are back on the road; this time headlining together in The Ones to Watch Tour!
The Ones to Watch Tour kicked off February 24th and wraps up later this month, March 26th, in Houston. Luckily, I had the chance to catch their show this past Friday at the Bottom Lounge in my hometown of Chicago.
First, I felt necessary to talk a bit about the location. Having never been to The Bottom Lounge concert venue before, it was a nice change of scenery. Located in an area well known for their appreciation of the night-life, I was pleasantly surprised that the concert hall area could only hold about seven hundred people at the max! In my experience smaller venues allow for a more intimate and personal experience. No complaints here!
Cemetery Sun opened for the show, showing off their unique alternative rock sound with such high-strung energy while on stage. Sadly, having gotten lost on my way to the venue, I didn’t get to see much of their set.
Fresh off of the bus for opening for Twenty One Pilots on their Blurryface tour, Finish Ticket is one of the bands now co-headlining on this tour.
San Francisco natives Brendan Hoye, Michael Hoye, Alex DiDonato, Gabe Stein, and Nick Stein make up Finish Ticket. If you haven’t heard of them, do yourself a favor and look them up! Their entire set was full of energy and enthusiasm. Their performance of “Colors” was a definite crowd pleaser and their cover of The Killers smash hit “When You Were Young” was unbelievable!
Vinyl Theatre packed most of the house Friday night as they were the band who closed the whole show.
Preforming every song off of their debut album Electrogram, the boys of Vinyl Theatre threw a few curve balls along the way. After being set to perform, the lights were cut and the only thing you could hear was the heavy breathing of everyone in the crowd standing around you and keyboardist Chris Senner jamming out. Magenta-toned lights dimly lit the stage and although the voice of lead singer Keegan Calmes singing was loud and clear, only Chris remained on stage. Halfway through their introduction song Keegan and drummer Nick Cesarz immerged from side stage to join the show.
After performing a few of their hits off of their album Electrogram, in which the crowd sang every word, Vinyl Threatre also performed a cover of “Pillow Talk” by Zayn, as well as their song “Tokyo” off of an older independently-released album titled Gold.
Nearing the end of the concert, the crowd pleaded for an encore, chanting “one more song, one more song” for what felt like forever but they finally came out for preform just one more, then brought out friends Brendan Hoye and Alex DiDonato of Finish Ticket to perform a cover together of “Jumper” by Third Eye Blind. Yet another fan favorite.
Always ones to please, the boys of Vinyl Theatre couldn’t resist playing just one more song after announcing a new album to be released soon.
“I know we said only one more song”, announced Keegan, “but we just love the crowd tonight, this is Gold”.
If I had to describe the Chicago stop on this tour in one word: WOW!
Just wow… I’m no stranger to the musical talents of either band but I truly thought the idea of them touring together was genius! Both bands complement each other well with similar genre styles of rock and maybe just a smidge of indie.
If you don’t see the Ones to Watch Tour believe me when I say you will regret it, as my experience was unforgettable!
To get tickets, or learn more visit the links below:
