Indie-Pop Band Echosmith Hangs Around with Houston at the House of Blues

Echosmith returned to Houston for the Hang Around tour with special guests Band of Silver and Lostboycrow.

Los Angeles based band Echosmith consists of siblings Sydney (lead vocals), Noah (bass) and Graham Sierota (drums). They took the world by storm with their highly popular track called “Cool Kids” from their debut album called Talking Dreams soon, which also featured other indie-pop tracks like “Let’s Love,” “Bright” and “Tell Her You Love Her.” The band has toured around the world on a set of headlining shows as well as opening for artists like Twenty One Pilots and Pentatonix. They released their sophomore album Lonely Generation in January 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. To continue interactions with fans, they constantly performed online concerts and even embarked on an online tour across different platforms like TikTok and Facebook. Now, they are back with new singles and a full in-person tour. 

It was a rainy afternoon in Houston, but the tour was in full swing. The show was set in the Bronze Peacock room at the House of Blues, resulting in a much more intimate performance. Opening the night was Band of Silver, an indie-pop band from Nashville. They warmed up the crowd with tracks from their album called Something Stronger such as the title track and “Chasing a Stranger.” As soon as their set was over, they headed over to their merch table to meet established and new fans. Chris Blair, also known as Lostboycrow, took the stage right after and had one of the best opening sets ever, as his live demeanor was extremely friendly and outgoing. Blair was on stage with performers Tanner Orange, Raymond Venta and Jared Kleinstein, who all had an amazing dynamic playing together. Lostboycrow has released a genre-fluid discography, with multiple EPs like Sigh for Me and Traveler, as well as full length albums Santa Fe and Valleyheart. According to Blair, they will be releasing their next album in the winter time, and have already released the lead single to the album called “Indie Rock.” The band was jumping all over the stage, standing on speakers, calling out fans (in a good way) – Blair even took the time to walk through the crowd, which everyone absolutely loved. 

Echosmith took the stage to close out the night with their indie-pop jams. They opened their set with the enticing new single called “Gelato,” followed by “Over My Head.” For their third track of their set called “Diamonds”, Sydney prepped the crowd to sing the song’s main chorus line “la, la, la” and brought out her iconic parasol umbrella. The band also debuted a brand new unreleased song called “Hindsight,” in which Sydney described it as a point-of-view from the pandemic, and it was an absolute favorite with fans as everyone was swaying and dancing along. 

The band took it down a notch by playing a throwback set, starting off with “Tell Her You Love Her,” where the band brought a fan on stage to make a video for her mom telling her that everyone in the room loves her and appreciates everything she does. They followed with their other popular track from Talking Dreams called “Bright,” where everyone sang extremely loud. The show had two memorable moments– the first moment was the Sydney announcing they had three song options (“Come with Me,” “Safest Place” and “Cool Kids (Cookie Version) in a cookie jar full of custom fortune cookies. A fan chose the winning cookie, which had the track “Safest Place.” They continued to play a medley of songs from their discography, such as “Let’s Love,” “Come Together,” “Get Into My Car,” “Favorite Sound” “God Only Knows” (a King and Country song) and “Surround You.”

Throughout the night, Echosmith also played two amazing covers, “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac and “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin (from the movie Top Gun). They also played more songs from their album Lonely Generation, such as “Favorite Sound” and “Lonely Generation.” They ended their set with their reimagined version of their hit track called “Cool Kids (our version),” where the band stated that the song belonged to the fans. The song has a much more mature sound and features a new bridge, which fans all loved and sang along just as loud. The Hang Around tour was definitely a great way for Echosmith to make their touring return, as the experience was extremely intimate and showed how much the band cares about their fans. The openers matched that energy, making Houston the perfect place to Hang Around (pun intended).