Opening act mehro—  the stage name of musician Sam Sturges—  kicked things off with “Pirate Song,” an acoustic crooner that’s a steady climb from velvety-soft to ballad. mehro’s strengths are in his easygoing melodies and arching tenor. A standout track was “Lady Parts and Mannequins,” a guitar-driven rocker during which there were some stronger signs of life from the crowd.

The onstage antics of Chicago indie darlings The Walters— who recently put our their debut album in March— equally go down a treat; following a long hiatus, the band is back to touring and having fun with it, shimmying left and bopping right as they treated us to “Sweet Marie”, “She’s Gonna Leave You”, and the viral standout “I Love You So”. 

Forget your pre-set hypeman; nothing riles up a crowd quite like a man taking a loud commercial vacuum up and down a stage carpet. Such were the moments before half•alive graced the stage—  preceded only by an appearance from the muppet creatures from Persona’s cover art— for a performance that is just as much bubbly as it is pensive, exploring what it means to be human as they do on much of their new album, Persona.

With half•alive, it seems the choreography is half the appeal; on almost every song, they continue to uphold the principal tenet of their virality: one member or another finds themselves breaking out into dance. It could all pass for a snippet from still feel. (the 2018 music video that was choreographed to a T, going quite a bit viral and launching them into the public eye): the songs are a series of well-choreographed, dynamically staged vignettes with Josh Taylor and his dance moves at the center. Visually, they’ve done themselves proud: despite a stage that at one point carried two dancers, two muppet-like creatures, drummer Brett Kramer, guitarist J. Tyler Johnson, and Taylor himself, it never felt overdressed. The stage design was one of the best parts; it was unique to have a stage covered head to toe in carpet, even if did have to be vacuumed beforehand.

They’ve got their hits: “the fall”, “arrow”, and the standout from their latest album, “Automatic” all get a hearty singalong, then it’s into their easygoing alt-popper “RUNAWAY”, which easily renders the most uplifting performance of the night— and the last—  morphing once more into a choreographed number.