By Anna Shockley
On Friday, February 18th at Sam’s Burger Joint, my friends and I were blessed by the sweet presence of Houndmouth, an indie rock band from Albany Indiana. Houndmouth was formed in 2011 by Katie Toupin, Matt Myers, Zak Appleby and Shane Cody. In 2016, Katie left the band to pursue personal interests, so nowadays the stage consists of the remaining delightful trio Matt, Zak and Shane.
As someone who is used to attending indie shows where the crowd is mostly high school and college aged students, I was shocked by the age of the folks at the show. My friends and I were likely the youngest people there by at least 5 years (sounds like an exaggeration but it's not). We missed the opener, but it must have been good because everyone seemed pumped and ready for Houndmouth to begin their set. The hanging backdrop was a dark red rug, almost the size of the stage. I don’t have synesthesia, but I feel like their music encompasses a similar color. The lights were a nice dark blue and the stage was framed by two totem poles engraved with dragons. The vibe was like an underground antique shop, in the best way possible.
Houndmouth’s opening song was Las Vegas, which Georgia Roberts, a fellow Trinity student, recalled as being one of her favorite parts of the show. As an opener, it did its job well by getting the crowd even more pumped. Following the opener, the beginning of the set consisted of a few personal favorites, such as Make it to Midnight, Miracle Mile, and Goodbye. Lila Steffan, another Trinity student, said that she was pleasantly surprised by how similar Houndmouth’s live performance sounded to their recorded stuff.
Throughout the entire concert, I could tell the trio was having a blast on stage, based on their massive smiles and nonchalant chemistry. It was pretty evident the band enjoyed playing their music just as much as the crowd enjoyed listening to it. This made it pretty easy to relax and be in the moment. The lead singer comfortably played around with some phenomenal guitar riffs which Ashley Allen, a Trinity student who also attended the concert, says was one of the most memorable parts of the show for her.
Toward the end of their set the lead singer played a song he said was written about a really crummy acid trip his girlfriend had — the lead singer recounted how Vice gave his girlfriend a tab of acid at a horse race and proceeded to follow her around the rest of the day, so it goes. My friends and I agreed that it sounded like a terrible experience, but he managed to make the experience into a great song. Steffan said that hearing that story was one of her favorite parts of the night. Houndmouth then finished the evening with their two most popular songs Darlin’ and Sedona. Those songs must have put the crowd in a trance because after the trio left the stage everyone seemed to be pretty content.
Houndmouth at Sam’s Burger Joint