Grandson rocks Chicago

Grandson recently brought their headlining tour, Death of a Tour to Bottom Lounge with support from Nova Twins and Royal & the Serpent. Nova Twins started the night off with, “Antagonist” from their soon-to-be released album, Supernova. The set also consisted of “Cleopatra” and “K.M.B” both of which are teasers for Supernova, which will be released in June. Although they were opening for alternative bands, vocalist Amy Love did not hold back the heavier, metal vocals and the crowd loved it. The band finished their set with “Taxi” off of their first album ‘Who Are the Girls?’. Next up was Royal & the Serpent starting their set off with, “i can’t get high” off of their album searching for nirvana and almost played their 2022 EP, IF I DIED WOULD ANYONE CARE in its entirety. Midway through the set, the band dimmed the lights and preformed “BETTER.” It was a heartfelt moment with the crowd as the song illuminates the ugly parts of mental illness that isn’t usually talked about, the crowd lit up the venue with their phone’s flashlights in support during the song. Lead singer Ryan Santiago teased the band’s new song, “happier in hell” which will be performed and released on the last night of tour. Nearing the end of their set, the band covered alternative hit “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers and the crowd went wild as the band ended their set with 2020 alternative hit “overwhelmed.” Grandson stormed the stage preforming politically charged “6:00” off of their EP a modern tragedy, vol. 1. Vocalist, Jordan Benjamin, came out sporting a Headcount t-shirt and noted it that he was able to register more voters through Headcount than many other artists have in the past such as Jay-Z, which is huge considering the size difference between the two fan bases. The set consisted of fan favorites from all of the band’s EPs and album. A few songs in, alternative hit “Dirty” off of their only album Death of an Optimist made the crowd go wild. A couple of songs later the whole band left the stage, excluding Benjamin, where he expressed how hard it was emotionally to sing “Bury Me Face Down” during the pandemic as he had missed being able to do it with a crowd. It was an intimate moment for both Jordan and the crowd as they all sang the song together in unity. Halfway through the set the band preformed an acoustic of “Ballad of G and X” where Benjamin explained how their latest album switched from a more caring to cynical view due to the current political climate which led to the creation of X. As the acoustic session concluded Jordan changed into a suit and tie to become more like X. After the band played “Identity” and “WWIII,” both of off Death of an Optimist. Benjamin drew bold X’s over his eyes to complete the transition to X. After the transition the songs performed were more pessimistic, including fan favorites “We Did It!!!” and “Despicable.” A lucky fan named Connie celebrated her 40th Grandson show that night and the band let her choose which song she wanted for an encore, Connie chose “Stigmata” from a modern tragedy, vol. 2. Following that, the band ended the night with their biggest hit “Blood // Water” and the crowd went absolutely wild. Overall, all three bands put on a great show that night leaving the crowd in awe. Although this tour is drawing to a close, you definitely do not want to miss live performance from any of these bands so make sure you keep an eye out for future tours. -Kayla Gray