The first leg of the Circus Tour kicked off Wednesday night with a SOLD OUT show. The Circus Tour, coming soon to a city near you, features Oso Oso, Prince Daddy & the Hyena, Just Friends, and either Sincere Engineer or Macseal. I was originally going to miss this fantastic tour due to other obligations but I was able to make it out to the show in Philly at The Foundry instead my usual Pittsburgh.
Sincere Engineer
The first band of the night was Sincere Engineer. I hadn’t listened to their music much before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I actually got a little lost and missed the first part of their set, but the part I did catch was incredible!
There were quite a few people who knew every word to every song and everyone seemed to enjoy their set! Of all the songs they played, the one that really caught my attention was “Shattering.” Check out the Audiotree Live performance of the song:
Just Friends
The second band of the night was Just Friends. Of all the 600+ bands I’ve seen live, Just Friends is my favorite! They bring such a high level of energy to the stage, and never fail to get the crowd absolutely hyped.
With the amount of people in the band (8?!), it’s always amazing how they manage to fit on stage, and still move around so much. Their enthusiasm is obvious and makes their set so incredible.
As for the setlist, the band mentioned that this may be the last tour to hear some of their older songs. If you’re a fan of Rock 2 the Rhythm, you should definitely plan to catch this tour. Hopefully, they’ll still keep “Welcome Mats” around, as it’s apparent from the crowd’s energy that it’s still a fan favorite. It inspired the first crowd surfers of the night, as well as a few pretty wild mosh pits.
It’s also worth noting that despite the high intensity of most of their songs, their biggest hit is arguably “I Wanna Love You.” This romantic track has even been used as a first dance track at a couple weddings. Although a change of pace, it’s also incredible live.
Prince Daddy & the Hyena
Kory is blond now, and someone added a section on Wikipedia for it.
One of the best albums that came out last year was Prince Daddy & the Hyena’s Cosmic Thrill Seekers. Having only seen the band live once since it came out, I was super excited to finally hear more of the songs live. This time around, the band played almost entirely songs from their newest album, which was quite surreal.
Oso Oso
The first time I saw Oso Oso was last May, opening for Knuckle Puck and Citizen on their coheadlining tour. I hadn’t listened to them before then, so I was pleasantly surprised by their set. Having since listened to their albums quite a bit, I was excited to finally see them play to a crowd of people who really knew their music (shows are always more fun that way).
Oso Oso opened their set with “wake up next to god” from basking in the glow. Most of the songs they played were also from that album, although there were a few tracks from the other albums (as well as fan favorite “gb/ol h/nf”).
It was a huge difference between the first time I saw Oso Oso and now. With more of the crowd being excited for their set, and me knowing a lot of the songs, I had a ton of fun. One of my favorite songs to hear was “Track 1, Side A” from Real Stories of True People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters. It was also cool to hear a lot of songs from the newest album live for the first time.
Merch
Check out the merch from the bands:
Rest of Tour
The tour is in the process of being rescheduled. See the note below from Oso Oso’s Twitter account:
To support the bands, grab merch here:
Oso Oso: osooso.shop
Prince Daddy & the Hyena: counterintuitiverecords.com/categories/prince-daddy-the-hyena
Just Friends: justfriends.merchnow.com
Sincere Engineer: sincereengineer.storenvy.com