X Ambassadors Hit the City of Austin on Their ‘Townie’ Tour

Touring for their newest album, Townie, released on April 5, 2024, X Ambassadors performs a high-energy show at Mohawk in Austin.

Kicking off the show was the first opener, alt-pop singer, Rowan Drake. Performing songs from his previous singles and EPs. He performed an amazing set with his acoustic guitar throughout his set, but due to his electric guitar tuner going out midway through, he was still able to make the crowd laugh with small jokes in between. He also talked about growing up watching X Ambassadors live in concert, and how it meant a lot to him to be doing his first full live shows opening for the band. Rowan Drake has also recently released his new album For All My Eyes Have Seen on June 14, 2024.

Next up was the second opener, New West, who started the show with amazing high energy which carried throughout his whole set. Mainly performing from his album Based on a True Story along with other singles and popular hits. Constantly hyping up his crowd, and the crowd doing so vice versa, lead singer, Kala Wita, danced and jumped through his whole set. Interacting with the crowd in the stands and the pit, and occasionally throwing up a heart with his hands. Kala even mentioned that their guitarist, Carter, had broken his leg on the first night of the tour. With the stage lights now on Carter featuring his leg cast but still playing his guitar with no problem. Despite this and the blazing Texas heat, New West put on a fun set that had everyone jumping and moving around.

Last up were headliners X Ambassadors who opened with one of their most iconic hits, “Renegade.” Starting the song off slow and letting the crowd lead by singing the first bit of the song, the band then picked it up and led to an amazing start to the show, immediately getting everyone singing and screaming. The next few songs on the setlist that followed were from their recent album Townie. Lead singer, Sam Harris, talked to the crowd about the meaning of Townie and how many can probably relate. Townie is about Sam and his brother, Casey, who both grew up together in a small town in New York. The album mentions the difficulties of growing up in a small town, wanting to be seen and heard and to leave it all behind for something bigger, but to look back years later and still feel grateful for the small things that came up in that town. He states in an Instagram post promoting the album,  “I’m so lucky to have grown up where and how I did, and so it feels like a very appropriate that, eighteen years later, we’d be putting out an album that’s a love letter to Ithaca, to Upstate New York, and all the people in it.” They performed more songs from their past hit album VHS and even performed “Home,” a song the band has with popular artists Machine Gun Kelly and Bebe Rexha.

Halfway through the show, the band performed another new song, “Your Town.” Sam talked about how the song was written about one of the best teachers he had growing up. He mentioned the teacher had passed within recent years, and how he unfortunately never got the chance to say goodbye. After a beautiful performance of the song with even more beautiful vocals, the song ends with a voicemail recording of the said teacher saying, “I’m sorry I don’t hear from you more, but I have to tell you, I am loving this new song. It is amazing, I had to introduce it to my entire family. And I just wanna say I’m so proud of you. Keep going, brother.” Looking around, many members of the crowd had tears in their eyes at this bittersweet moment.

The show continued with amazing energy, jumping, and dancing as more hits played. The band’s last song was “Unsteady,” another radio hit, which is a slower song, but the crowd sang the lyrics as loud as they could. The band then came back with a two-song encore of “Gorgeous” and “Jungle,” then ended the show by saying goodbye to the city of Austin and thanking them for an amazing show.