In case you didn’t hear, Spring has sprung and who better to celebrate the change of seasons than with Smallpools, Great Good Fine Ok and Half the Animal. The trio of indie-pop bands have your best interests at heart with the perfect warm weather soundtrack. “Just let go, it’s too late to turn back now,” Half the Animal vocalist Chase Johnson crooned amongst the vibrant colored lights. The three-piece band wasted no time setting the mood with a handful of originals including “Too Late,” “Bad Bad Love” and “Babylon.” The SoCal four-piece sounded polished and let the roots of their music transform The Underground in Charlotte to a spirited paradise.
But with time, one mood gave way to the next. Great Good Fine Ok traded the rock-infused riffs for some synths and something futuristic. Frontman Jon Sandler walked onto stage donning a gleaming red sport coat which transformed him into a human disco ball more or less. With glowing instruments in hand, Great Good Fine Ok was the epitome of groovy. However while the band looked good, Sandler’s falsetto was the highlight of the night.
His voice courses through the recordings, but in a live setting it’s on another level. His talent is evident from the beginning with “Take It or Leave It,” “Find Yourself” and “Not Going Home,” but Sandler deserved a standing ovation after the band’s rendition of Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing).” Close your eyes and with little effort you could envision the King of Pop strutting his stuff right in front of you. But then again, open your eyes and you can see Sandler strutting his own stuff.
Along with fellow band mates: drummer Danny Wolf, keyboardist Luke Moellman, and guitarist Carey Clayton, Great Good Fine Ok is a complete show. Whether it’s the band insignia glowing from Wolf’s drumhead, Moellman’s luminescent key-tar or Clayton’s cool and collected strumming, the band is attention grabbing and never loses the audience’s interest.
Great Good Fine Ok set the bar high for a tour titled Spring Is Sprung, but it’s nothing Smallpools couldn’t match.
The band emerged to “Over & Over,” one of the many energetic tracks that helped cement them in the shimmery electro-pop world they reside. Strobe lights beamed into the antsy audience, a crowd anxious to experience the four-piece in the Queen City for the first time. They wasted little time with talking, jumping from one song into the next. “No Story Time” transitioned into “Passenger Side” and “Street Fight” before frontman Sean Scanlon paused to not only catch his breath, but reveal the story behind “Mother.”
Smallpoolls showcased just how much they’ve grown since the last time they visited North Carolina in 2015. They’ve experimented with other genres and much of their newer sound came through in the softer tracks “DJs & Porches” and “Stumblin’ Home.” Heck, Smallpools even included their own rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” that fit seamlessly into the set. Had you not recognized the iconic track, you would’ve thought it was a Smallpools original.
And with the new came the old. The band kept old traditions alive for the new city. Right on queue before “Killer Whales,” Scanlon told the story of googling themselves and discovering the controversy of animals being kept in small pools. And within moments, the inflatable killer whale was crowd surfing throughout the venue while the audience sang along to the mascot’s self-titled track.
