Images: Have Mercy, Weatherbox, You Me And Everyone We Know, Head North, Twin Cities March 30, 2015 at Eagle Aerie Hall

Fans were already standing in line to get in when I arrived at Eagle Hall last Monday night for Have Mercy/Weatherbox – something I haven’t seen there since the last The Story So Far and Citizen gigs.

This was good news for openers Twin Cities, an indie/emo band fronted by Macario Gutierrez. If you weren’t familiar with the local scene, you might have assumed that Twin Cities is on the tour package, both because of how tight their live show is and how emotional their fans get at seeing them play. Their impassioned performance really seemed to wow the crowd, including the onlooking touring bands.

Next up was Buffalo’s Head North, who I’m familiar with as an avid listener of Zack Zarrillo’s podcasts. Zarrillo (of Property of Zack) owns the label they’re signed to (Bad Timing) and has been hyping them up for months, so I was excited to see how their live show stacks up.  Thankfully, they totally lived up to Zarillo’s kind words, with catchy riffs and strong vocals from frontman Brent Martone.

Lancaster, PA pop/rock band You, Me, and Everyone We Know were up next and as soon as the opening notes to “I Can Get Back Up Now” from 2008’s So Young, So Insane hit my ears, it brought back a rush of nostalgia. I haven’t kept up with YMAEWK as much in recent years, but the deeper cuts still sounded great and had me singing along. Frontman Ben Liebsch’s spastic energy encouraged the crowd’s enthusiasm to skyrocket.

While Have Mercy were the headliners, you’d have thought it was San Diego’s Weatherbox as the venue felt liked it reached maximum capacity right before they came out, including many familiar faces from the House of Wonk. Due to health reasons, frontman Brian Warren was forced to cancel the band’s two scheduled Vegas shows last year, including a gig at the Wonk, so fans were thrilled to see that Weatherbox finally came out and seem to be in good spirits.

Hearing songs from last year’s Flies In All Directions live for the first time was awesome, but after the energetic crowd for You, Me, and Everyone We Know, Weatherbox fans felt so much more subdued, more content to stand back and soak in the music than to jump and sing along.

The crowd thinned out quite a bit after Weatherbox, leaving only about 50 fans for headliners Have Mercy. The fans made up for the low numbers with high intensity though, and the band was definitely feeling it, throwing in a Bill O’Reilly “fuck it, we’ll do it live” reference for good measure. Every kid left in the room was shouting back every lyric to “Happy Plastic Furniture” from 2014’s A Place of Our Own and “Let’s Talk About Your Hair” from 2013’s The Earth Pushed Back.

The band enjoyed themselves, and it showed. It was their first floor show in a while, which they said was both dangerous – I’ve seen plenty of frontman thrown into the drums at Eagle Hall by an eager fan so I understand – and fun, as it allowed for more crowd interaction. Case in point – kids crowd surfing in a nearly empty room.

Photos by Hunter Wallace | https://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter_wallace/