half•alive and Sure Sure: Live Art Pop

The fantastic half•alive played The Cowan in Nashville recently, but let’s talk about the opener first. Sure Sure honestly is one of the better openers I have seen in the year. Most bands resort to local acts that don’t match or a band that’s a watered-down sound of themselves. But Sure Sure didn’t play like an opener; they played like the crowd came strictly for them. The Art Pop sound they have is reminiscent of the Talking Heads and R&B bedroom pop. Which made even more sense when they covered “This Must Be The Place.” They’re interactive with the crowd, and got a good chunk of people to dance along. Most openers have trouble getting half the room not to talk, but I think it was more than the crowd just being very polite

half•alive is a band from Long Beach, California. The band was formed in 2016 and consists of lead singer Josh Taylor, drummer Brett Kramer, and bassist J Tyler Johnson. The trio is best known for their single “Still Feel” and it’s technically choreographed music video. Their debut studio album, a” Now, Not Yet,” was released on August 9, 2019. It felt like I was less at a concert and more or less watching performance art. Not one singular song did not involve either a choreographed dance or impressive yet minimalist visuals. But that doesn’t mean the show had the distance and cold vibe of a stadium show. It was way less of a casual crowd than I thought it was going to be; most of the audience knew every word to every song. The band didn’t need to do much too impress their fanbase, but I don’t think the theatrics are to bring in people to give more attention to the ban. From the music videos to the live shows, half•alive has a passion for what they do. They can pursue artistic merit in their medium; without it coming off as pretentious, it’s too playful to be considered anything snobbish. At one point, the two dancers came out and taught the crowd a move, and almost the whole room was participating with near-flawless execution. If you have a chance, go out and catch this tour. You’ll have a good time dancing in the front or just watching from the back.

Tour Dates

OCT 11Indianapolis, IN Deluxe @ Old National Centre
OCT 12 Chicago, IL Metro
OCT 13 Minneapolis, MN Varsity Theater
OCT 15 Denver, CO Gothic Theatre
OCT 16 Salt Lake City, UT The Complex
OCT 18 San Francisco, CA The Independent
OCT 19 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
OCT 21 Los Angeles, CA Fonda Theatre
OCT 29 Zurich, Switzerland Papiersaal
OCT 30 Wien, Austria WUK
OCT 31 Prague, Czech Republic Rock Cafe
NOV 02 Warszawa, Poland Proxima
NOV 04 Berlin, Germany FRANNZ Club
NOV 05 Hamburg, Germany Knust
NOV 06 Köln, Germany Stadtgarten
NOV 08 Nieuw-Amsterdam, Netherlands THT/Paradiso Noord
NOV 09 Brussels, Belgium AB Club
NOV 10 Paris, France La Maroquinerie
NOV 12 London, United Kingdom Electric Brixton
NOV 13 Birmingham, United Kingdom o2 Institute
NOV 14 Manchester, United Kingdom Gorilla
NOV 16 Dublin, Ireland Academy Green Room
NOV 17 Glasgow, United Kingdom King Tuts Wah Wah Hut