Lights dim on the House of Blues Anaheim on Wednesday, February 22, 2012, to a full house of eager concertgoers anxiously awaiting the appearance of the night’s main act: the shy Nashville band behind hit singles “Tonight Tonight” and “I Like It Like That,” Hot Chelle Rae. As the room goes black and the band members stroll confidently on stage, the immense stereo system booms the intro chords to their title track, “Beautiful Freaks.”
Lead singer Ryan Follesé stuns the viewers with seemingly perfect pitch on the first few bars, and you get the sense that even the band itself remains taken aback by the sheer number of fans in the crowd, singing along to every word.
“We’ve played this stage a few times before, but never quite like this,” Follesé comments in between songs, “You guys have more energy than any group we’ve ever played to before.”
And it’s probably true. The floor of the venue appears so filled that each person is touching five other people, and there is not a seat unoccupied in the upper-level balcony. Hot Chelle Rae cycles through several popular songs from their album Whatever before taking a break to return to their Nashville roots. The drummer and background guitarist leave the stage and Follesé and his song-writing partner Nash Overstreet (yes, actor Chord Overstreet’s brother) begin to harmonize acoustically to the clearly country rhythm that emerges between their guitar strings.
This small interlude into the history of the group, the “before they were famous…” part of the show, lets the audience sit back and relax for a moment. The performance provides evidence for the group’s quick ascent to fame, as many passive radio listeners discard them as simply another boy pop band that is doomed to fail. When the fifteen minute acoustic break ends, the drummer and second guitarist return to finish the concert.Throughout the concert, Hot Chelle Rae played seventeen songs, including everything from their number one hit on the radio to a song called “I Wish I Was Emo” that the band played when the artists first joined each other; the song is also the first one that Overstreet and Follesé wrote together.
While the clear misuse of the subjunctive bothered me throughout the course of the performance, I enjoyed the song because it sounded different from all of the rest. Maybe it had a deeper emotional component for Overstreet and Follesé, which presented an enjoyable callback to their early work.
The final song performed by the band was “Whatever,” a fast-paced, well-written anthem with a message that emphasizes never giving up on life. Follesé, Overstreet, and the other members of the band each seemed to relate to this song in their own way. Jam-packed with visual effects , instrumental solos, and catchy lyrics, it was the perfect song to close the show, which it was intended to do, until the band got called back out for one more rendition of “Tonight Tonight.”
All in all, the maturity of the performance was impressive. Each member of the band held their own throughout the one and a half hour long show. The songs all sounded exciting and different, with pitch problems rarely emerging and pure enthusiasm overshadowing any vocal errors that may or may not have been made. It’s safe to say, solely from this performance, that America has not heard the last of Hot Chelle Rae
