Little Bribes kicked things off at a surprisingly busy Rock City Basement. It’s always nice to see a local band doing so well, and even better when they’re actually really good. After building up into “Reboot”, with its catchy riff and raging chorus, the band continued to blast through their songs – with each one sounding tight, and covering a lot of ground musically.
Sorority Noise started swiftly after and kicked things off with the one-two punch of “Nolsey” and “Rory Shield”. As guitarist Adam Ackerman bounded around the stage, throwing out all kinds of rockstar moves, it was a strange juxtaposition to the low, sad themes of most of their songs.
But hey, it works, and the crowd immediately got into things. The boundless energy on stage really made the band stand out from the pack of bands in the emo revival (/FE) genre. Not to mention how tight they are musically, especially for their first show overseas.
The band continued through their catalogue, with each song being met by raucous singalongs from the busy venue, or when necessary, complete silence – which was particularly stunning during the emotional “Either Way” taken from their upcoming EP It Kindly Stopped for Me.
They closed things out with “Your Soft Blood”, again met by the standard singalong as Ackerman threw himself around the stage. The set was a showcase of a relatively young band’s talent, and presumably what’s to come in the near future.
