Words & Photos By Haley Pagenkopf
On Sunday September 29th lovelytheband with support from Twin XL performed at The Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri. This wasn’t my first time seeing lovelytheband and it won’t be my last. It was however my first time seeing Twin XL and I can safely say that I don’t think it will be my last time seeing them either.
Twin XL is a trio consisting of members Cameron Walker-Wright (vocals), Stephen Gomez (bass), and John Gomez (guitar). They included the entirety of their debut EP titled ‘How To Talk To Strangers’ in their set for this show. The Los Angeles based band also performed a new track titled ‘Messy’. The upbeat and all around good-vibes of their performance got the crowd excited for the rest of the show. I was already a fan of Twin XL (‘Good’ has been in all of my favorite playlists since the song was first released in 2018) but I can safely say that I am even more of a fan after seeing them perform live.
lovelytheband is made up of Mitchy Collins (vocals), Jordan Greenwald (guitar) and Sam Price (drums). At this show they performed an eleven song set which almost entirely consisted of songs from their debut album ‘finding it hard to smile’ with one song coming from their first EP titled ‘everything I could never say…’ and one cover song. I personally always get excited when I hear those first few notes of ‘make you feel pretty’ as the band takes to the stage since it’s one of my all time favorites. Another staple of a lovelytheband show is a cover that’s included in their set. As much as I miss when it used to be ‘Pony’ by Ginuwine, their cover of the classic ‘Mr. Brightside’ by The Killers is a welcome replacement that everyone in the crowd can and did scream along with.
Some other songs included within their set were ‘maybe i’m afraid’, ‘i like the way’, ‘don’t worry, you will’ and ‘stupid mistakes’. This little show in Missouri was a special one for the lovelytheband team as it was their last with their long time tour manager who they brought out on stage for a shot before they sang ‘these are my friends’. Shortly after that they ended the show with none other than ‘broken’. ‘broken’ is always a special one to see lovelytheband perform live because everyone is singing along and the crowd is truly electric and jumping. I will say that I am a little biased purely because they have been one of my favorite bands for the past two years but I will never get tired of seeing these guys perform.
Twin XL will be all over the states as they hit the road with The Maine this fall and with Fitz and The Tantrums early next year. As for lovelytheband, make sure you stay up to date with their socials so that you can see when they will be in a city near you. They’ll be embarking on the UK and Europe leg of their ‘Finding it Hard to Smile Tour’ throughout November before returning to the US for various radio hosted holiday shows.