A Homecoming for A Will Away

Christmas came a little early for A Will Away fans. The band concluded their tour with a stop in their hometown of Naugatuck, Connecticut. The special part about this show was that the band would be playing their EP Bliss, their debut album Here Again, and their latest EP Soup in full. The band also said they would play their song "The Masochist’s Daughter" if the show sold out. Supporting A Will Away were CT natives Palindromes and Con Etiquette, as well as Sunsleeper and Small Talks. A long line up, but an amazing show none the less.

Palindromes kicked the night off. They had good energy live. They were on pretty early, but drew a decent crowd. People wanted to listen to them play. Their latest EP, Doubt is out now.

Con Etiquette went on stage next. They rocked out a lot more than Palindromes. They asked for people to come closer to the stage, and to move around with them. However, things slowed down near the end of their set, specifically for their song “Adios.” That song talks about losing someone you love, and how that can make the holidays hard. Their latest release Anywhere is out now.

Salt Lake City natives Sunsleeper were on after Con Etiquette. They were one of my favorite acts of the night. They got the crowd to move with them too. In setting up their song “Fading” Jeffery Mudgett (vocals, lead guitar) explained how the song is about the loss of a friendship, a friendship he didn’t want to lose. They closed their set with their song “Souvenir.” The crowd really got into that one.

Their latest release You Can Miss Something And Not Want It Back is out now.

Small Talks had their turn next. Now, I had already heard them, so I wasn’t trying to see if they could win me over per say, but I think they did anyway. Cayley Spivey is electric on stage. The whole band was jumping around and just having fun. Spivey got the crowd involved by having them clap their hands to keep the beat going on multiple songs. Small Talks performed “Teeth” and “Quiet Sounds” off their debut album A Conversation Between Us, as well as “New Dork Pity” off their 2017 EP Until It Turns To Petals. I didn’t think they could be any more energetic, and then Spivey went into the crowd, and danced and sang with some people in the front row during “Thinking of the Sun.” Small Talks is definitely a band that should be on your radar if they aren’t already. Their latest release A Conversation Between Us is out now.

Then it was time for A Will Away. They started their set with “Play Dead” from Bliss and the crowd went off from there. People were screaming the lyrics back at the band and at the people they were next to as well. They went on to play the rest of Bliss and then went straight into their newest EP, Soup. The EP has only been out for a little over a month now, but with how everyone was dancing and singing along, an outsider might think it’s been around for longer. After concluding that EP, they moved on to, Here Again. They started off with the title track, but it wasn’t played the way fans were used to. According to the band, since they’ve had to play it for the last two years, they got a little sick of it. So they went home and rewrote it. And what a beautiful rewrite it is. It’s slower, and as I looked around the room it brought people together. The crowd was like a scene from a movie when everyone comes together; you’re all instantly friends. People were putting their arm around the person next to them, even though they don’t really know them. That’s the bond, the community this A Will Away show created. The energy went back up during “Agoraphobia” and stayed pretty constant. However, they did slow things down again with an acoustic rendition of “Better Reluctant.” They played the rest of Here Again, and “closed” with “Something Special.” However, before they started the song Matthew Carlson (vocals, lead guitar) said a joke, one he had made on every stop of the tour. He said “thank you guys so much, we’ve been A Will Away and this has really been Something Special.”

However, the show wasn’t over yet. The show had sold out, so they had a promise to keep. For the first time in six years A Will Away played “The Masochist’s Daughter.” But before they started playing Carlson told the crowd “For the record, this is on all of you.” I think we were okay with that. If the crowd had gone off before, they gave everything they had left in them for this song. A Will Away’s newest EP Soup is out now.

One thing I want to get across in this piece is that, this didn’t feel like a concert. It felt more like a social gathering; a party. Everyone was there for a good time and some good music, and that’s how it really should be.

There were so many good bands in this tour package, and if you don’t look into at least one of them, you’re doing yourself a major disservice.