By: Robyn Tuazon
Concerts are back, people! After a heartbreaking year and a half hiatus of not attending or working concerts, I finally had the opportunity to be in what my friends refer to as my “natural habitat.” To say I was thrilled is an understatement. Allow me to introduce Sloan Struble, more widely known as the indie-pop project Dayglow. A 22-year old musical genius from the Fort Worth, Texas area and currently based in Austin, who could give Tame Impala a run for his money. His brilliance is equally matched with his naturally charismatic personality. Don’t believe me? Look up his YouTube channel and watch him break down most of his songs. It’s honestly incredible to say the least. For anyone that enjoys behind-the-scenes content or any music production nerds out there, I highly recommend watching it.
Back to the concert, side-note, I have such a soft spot for indie-pop music, and especially for any Texas artists, I guess for me personally it just makes me feel closer to them. Like I can connect to them more. Anyways, I’ve always believed live music to be something special and there’s a reason why so many people go out of their way and spend money to attend such events for a couple of hours. It’s the magical feeling it brings to our souls and spirits.
Standing in the photo pit in front of a packed venue amidst the loud cheers, I watched Dayglow and his band walk out to the sounds of Something, the first single off his second LP, Harmony House. Dressed in a relaxed and hip fit that radiates his old soul, Dayglow had the biggest smile on his face and came with an energy as big as Texas. Afterwards, he played Medicine which is such a catchy tune and one of my personal faves off the album. If you’re familiar with Dayglow’s history, you know that his sound is heavily inspired by '70s and '80s pop and the feel-good vibes of yacht rock. After that he went into an old favorite, Nicknames from his first album, Fuzzy Brain, which he wrote his senior year of high school. I’m still amazed by the quality of his production at such a young age. He writes, produces, and mixes everything himself y’all. Give this man his flowers.
The next dozen songs or so were a combination of his two albums, there was a lot of dancing and grooving and even some really wholesome and sweet moments where things mellowed out. During the song, Into Blue, the lights turned off and the cell phone lights came on, as everyone in the crowd slowed down and sang along to the beautiful melodies of Dayglow. I can definitely see this song in a Netflix film, one of those coming-of-age or romantic comedy things. The general theme of Harmony House is about growing up and who can’t relate to that? The entire album from start to finish has such a nostalgic feeling to it. It’s like comfort food for my ears.
As the night drew to a close, I was anxiously waiting to hear the song that was pretty much the main reason why I wanted to attend. Close To You. It’s the first song that I heard from him. It’s a song that I kept in heavy rotation since the beginning of the year. One of the songs I added to the “soundtrack of my life.” The intro alone just makes me wanna dance. Fun fact, which I recently learned, he initially dreamed up this song and envisioned it as a duet, but because he’s more of an introverted person he ended up just doing a duet with himself. I love that because he killed it! His falsetto vocals in the chorus are hands-down my favorite part of the entire song. The entire night was well worth the $30 parking fee I had to pay (freakin’ Dynamo game, I’m Ubering next time btw). I definitely had to cop a vinyl of Harmony House just to support and because I wanted a visual, tangible reminder of a beautiful evening shared with my local community of concert lovers who appreciate amazing music from a remarkable artist. Thank you Dayglow. You have a new fan in me. Looking forward to the art you put into the world in the future. The world needs more of it.
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