By Ana Achata, Staff Writer
Who: Hippo Campus, Petey USA
Where: MGM Music Hall
When: Friday, February 7
Hippo Campus, the indie rock band all the way from St. Paul, Minnesota, did a magnificent job at bringing out a fun crowd at their recent Boston show. Their US winter tour kicked off about ten days ago, and if you got lucky enough to be right up against the stage on Friday night, it was easy to feel like you were in a different world. About halfway through the show I took a trip from the pit to the balcony seating area of MGM Music Hall and it was just as fun to watch the crowd move as it was to watch the actual band.
Setting the Mood
Accompanying Hippo Campus on the Flood Tour is Petey USA, and if I hadn’t known that I was at a Hippo Campus concert, I would’ve thought it was all for Petey. The people around me were chanting his name between almost every song, and during the set there was a flood of people jumping and singing along like it was the main event. The band played a total of eleven songs, one of which was a cover of “No One Else” by Weezer. The others ranged across their three albums, including the album USA, their first release after being signed under Capitol Records.
I felt like I was watching a house show that had been placed on a bigger stage – Petey was fun, had silly lyrics mixed in with poetics, and had the sound of a college rock band with grunge-y undertones. Petey played us a couple of unreleased tracks, one of which he wants to call “Milk Man Cometh,” and he joked that the record label might not let him call it that because it’s “too weird.” Petey exclaimed, “I can’t believe I’m 33 and still making music like this!” Needless to say, I came away from Petey USA’s set with a smile on my face.
Hippo Campus Loves Boston (and We Love Them!)
I had forgotten how loud a concert crowd could be until the first song started– Hippo Campus opened with “Madman” and several other songs off their new album Flood. If I were to sum up the whole concert, I would say it was like summer had come back for a few hours. Hippo Campus (to me) is a can of soda if it could make music; the band was illuminated by an incredible light setup, with flashes of pink and yellow shooting across the venue. The members themselves looked like they had come straight from summer vacation, sporting t-shirts and sunglasses while they stood in the middle of a cloud of fog.
Getting to see their evolution over the last ten years in the span of just a couple hours was incredible; their older albums have a fun pop feel, and their newer albums are undoubtedly theirs, but with an electronic twist. We truly got a good variety of songs out of this set with the majority being from their newest album, while still mixing in older songs like “Way It Goes” and “Baseball.” It seemed like a few members of the crowd were feeling some nostalgia – I caught a few tears and hugs moving through the room.
Frontman Jake Luppen made sure to express his love for Boston about five times, saying “Boston, you look as good as you sound– and you sound pretty damn good!” Though, it’s safe to say that they sounded way better than we did. I was particularly impressed by DeCarlo Jackson, the band's trumpet player, who created a unique sound with the rest of the band’s electric guitars.
After a beautiful set of twenty one songs, Hippo Campus graced the stage one last time for an encore of “Warm Glow” and “Violet” to end the night. They left the crowd smiling and dancing, and what better way is there to spend your evening?
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