Walk The Moon hit the SumTur Ampitheater in Papillion Monday night on a small U.S. headline run before jetting off to Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. Walk The Moon mentioned that it had been three years since their last visit to Nebraska and they were glad to be back playing in Omaha.
I had the pleasure of attending the show with my cousin Grace who runs a lifestyle/adventure blog called Cross it Off. She had a really positive attitude even when we were getting rained on while walking to to the venue. Luckily, before the bands started playing the clouds parted and the sun came out bringing the temperature to a cool 70 degrees. You really couldn’t ask for better concert weather.
As we made our way to the front of the stage I ran into a couple girls with face paint and big smiles. I asked if they had seen Walk The Moon before, to which they replied “37 times”. I was a bit taken aback when I heard 37! Chelsea and Anna said they started following Walk The Moon in 2012 and they were going to all of the dates on their current U.S. run. Chelsea said she flew from Florida to Detroit to meet up with Anna who was coming in from Canada, then they drove over 11 hours to get to Omaha. What a cool experience to see a band that many times and still be that excited for the next show.
After talking with Chelsea and Anna I did some mingling in the crowd and saw a few familiar faces including Robert, who I met at the Sir Sly show a few weeks back. He was holding up a sign to get set lists from the bands. He had already snagged a set list for opening band Coin from the sound crew.
As I mentioned above, opening band Coin from Nashville, TN was the first up on the bill. They had some pretty good tunes filled with hooky guitar loops, drum machine beats, and groovy synth waves. I saw a lot of people singing along to hits like “I Don’t Want to Dance” and “Talk Too Much”. Lead singer Chase Lawrence bounced around and really got the crowd going. Several times Chase jumped down to the front to let the mostly female group take the microphone and scream the lyrics.
After a short break it was time for the main event. Smoke filled the stage as the lights went down and an eerie synth buzz came over the speakers. Walk The Moon stepped out to a raucous applause. Everyone was on their feet from the front row all the way back to the lawn. About 2,000 people turned out to dance the night away in the cool Nebraska air. I was surprised how many people showed up considering the weather was a bit iffy at first and it was a Monday night, but it turned out to be a great show!
There was a solid mix of deep cuts and hit songs throughout the set. Obviously the biggest crowd reaction of the night came during “Shut Up and Dance”, Walk The Moon’s 2014 mega hit. The highlight for me personally was the song “Headphones”, which featured an extended jam and part of “Kashmir”. The energy level was awesome and everyone around me was jumping up to the beat. To quote Nick Hexum from 311:
“One organism in celebration”
Walk The Moon is quite the spectacle live. They recently completed a very successful tour with 30 Seconds to Mars. They mentioned that they loved playing with 30 Seconds but were happy to get back to their own show so they could pull out deep cuts and mix things up. I was really happy with the set that was played and by the roar of all those around me I think it’s safe to say that they were too.
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