Washington D.C.-based indie-pop band Sub-Radio visited Pittsburgh’s Thunderbird Cafe & Music Hall on their Sunrise City tour across the UK and Eastern US. With 13 dates spread across the month of February, they’re wrapping up just as quickly as they got started. Their last time in Pittsburgh was at Crafthouse, where I attended as a fan, so I was very excited to have the opportunity to photograph and review this show!
The show started out with touring opener Doublecamp, a duo from Nashville with a little hip-hop flair to their indie-pop jams. Their music was softer than I knew Sub-Radio would be, and I appreciated an upbeat but chill opener. They made good use of backing tracks to fill out the scene without putting too much on the recording, which could have made it feel fake. The duo (plus touring drummer!) managed to squeeze in a lot of music during their set, including some new music that may or may not be on repeat in our house now…
Second on the two-band bill was Sub-Radio with an exploding opening song “Pink Lemonade.” They kept the crowd dancing with a mix of upbeat songs, a handful of slow tunes, and lots of bright lights and energy. Personally, I love when a band who plays upbeat music has a vocalist who isn’t tethered to an instrument so they can move around and interact with the crowd, which vocalist Adam Bradley was able to do.
The fans at this show were very fun and sweet, sharing everything from face glitter to Kandis (known as “friendship bracelets” to some) with everyone they could get to. They even organized a fan project by passing out blue slips of paper that were to be held over your phone flashlight during the song “Cool,” which the band later acknowledged was a nice treat to be seeing in every city across the tour.
About halfway through the set, Adam announced to us that we’ve made it through the “straight” part of their set and we’d now be moving into the “gay” part, making a point to joke that bisexuality means you’re 50% straight and 50% gay with no room to move around that spectrum. As the crowd was chuckling at that, Adam continued with a brief speech about what it’s like to be an LGBTQ+ musician based in D.C. during this current administration. Spoiler alert: it’s bad! He encouraged us to stand up for those who may not have a voice or who are simply exhausted while we’re only a month in. “Be aggressively defensive” was my takeaway, which I certainly will continue doing.
Reaching the end of the show, Adam took to the mic one more time to explain their opinions on encores. He talked about how they think encores are silly when the songs are literally printed on their pre-planned setlist, and it’s a waste of time to make the crowd chant “one more song!” while they stand backstage, just out of sight, with the house lights still dimmed… only to come out and play their most popular song(s) right after. Instead of that, he told us when they had three songs left and invited us to chant “one more song” after the next song, so the two after that felt like an encore. It worked! It was great! More bands should do this!
Overall, the show exceeded expectations, and I had a great time. Thunderbird is definitely the right venue for them to be playing at in Pittsburgh, and I hope they continue to book more shows here on future tours!
P.S. Can somebody please tell them to release “Dimension” already? 🙂
