The Welcome to Hellvetica Tour kicked off Thursday night in Chicago, IL at the Metro to a room full of colorful fans. Lined up hours before doors were slated to open, the fans for co-headliners Joywave and iDKHOW spent the time between grabbing onto the barricade to listening to the first note ring, discussing possible set lists, and how crazy they were going to go when their favorite songs were played.
Crooner Savannah Conley provided her sweet, melodic tunes to warm up the crowd and get the mood set right. She was the perfect mix of mellow and energetic to awaken the audience after a day of work and school, yet prepared for the dancing that was about to occur.
Half of a Corvette with an Illinois license plate reading “JOYWAVE” is put on the stage, along with all the respective instruments that are about to be played. The lights go down and five men wearing mechanic jumpsuits walk on stage, but these men aren’t actually mechanics; the music starts and it’s revealed that the mechanics are actually Joywave! The crowd goes wild as “Coming Apart” opens the set.
The indie rockers rolled through their 15 song set with a live debut of “Pray for the Reboot” from their recently released fourth album Cleanse, the Euphoria popularized “Dangerous,” and lead singer Daniel Armbruster‘s quarantine side project Best Frenz track “Ugly Ending.” The crowd is reeling while Joywave plays their encore.
Coming from two completely different genres, bassist Dallon Weekes and drummer Ryan Seaman put their talents together to form the new wave, indie pop duo I Dont Know How But They Found Me, stylized as iDKHOW. Starting off with the popular “Choke,” they lit up the club right from the start. Younger fans on the barricade were belting out the lyrics and humming along to the baseline. Daniel from Joywave joined them onstage later in the set and added a verse to “Nobody Likes the Opening Band,” which left the crowd buzzing for the finale.
The Welcome to Hellvetica Tour continues across North America through the end of September.
iDKHOW
JOYWAVE
SAVANNAH CONLEY
