CARRBORO, NC- Self-proclaimed as “your mom’s favorite band”, The Band Camino is a dynamic group from Memphis, Tennessee that consists of Jeffery Jordan (vocals/lead guitar), Spencer Stewart (vocals/guitar), Graham Rowell (bass) and Garrison Burgess (drums). Formed back in 2015, they seamlessly thread together rock with pop, and dropped their first EP, My Thoughts on You, in 2016 with their next EP, Heaven, released in 2017. Their third and most recent EP, tryhard, just came out in August, right before the start of this tour.
The Cat’s Cradle was packed to the brim way before the start of the show. You could feel the anticipation sweeping through the veins of the eager crowd. Once it hit showtime, we were all expecting Valley, who has been on the road with The Band Camino, to show their faces on stage but instead, the song “Stacy’s Mom” rang through the speakers. As expected, everyone screamed the lyrics along to the tune. Quite the intro, I’d say, to get the crowd amplified. Energizing the crowd with their hits, “There’s Still a Light in the House” and “You”, they won me over, along with everyone else, with their charm and charisma. It always impresses me when everyone in the crowd is singing along with the opening band, which is exactly what happened with the Toronto based, alternative pop group.
While we all thought “Stacy’s Mom” was a great introduction song, I don’t think anyone was expecting “Bananaphone” to ring through the speakers when the lights dimmed down. Coming close to the end of their tour, The Band Camino left nothing on the table for Carrboro, NC, performing like it was the first night of the tour. Opening with “Break Me” from their latest EP, the crowd was hypnotized, freely singing and sometimes screaming along to every last word. Along with playing some crowd favorite songs off their new EP, “Hush Hush” and “Farsighted”, they took us back to the beginning of their career with “2 / 14” and “The Black and White”.
Jordan gave us a little insight into the song “Farsighted” he helped co-write:
“… My friends and family are like, ‘dude just be yourself, like quit trying so hard”, another reason we call the record tryhard, but people say, ‘just be yourself’. It’s really hard sometimes to figure out what the fuck that means because there’s just so much and different ways you can act… and sometimes living inside your own head, you don’t know how you come across…”.
The majority of the intentional and compelling lyrics explore a variety of relationships, ranging from your own relationship with yourself to relationships with others. As their lyrics filled the room, you could get the sense that everybody in the audience had at least one instance of an intense influx of emotions. You could see emotions scattered on all faces in the crowd. There was shared laughter along with some tears.
With the heightened emotions, we were reminded to just have fun. After they played, “I Spend Too Much Time in My Room”, Jordan went on to say:
“We have plenty of sad songs to get all the sad out but then you get to the point of the show where you dance. So, now that we got some of the sad songs out of the way, were going to hopefully play some songs that inspire you to dance just a little bit. So, personally, I am going to shake my ass and I need you to do the same”.
Leaving the crowd with that, the bold intro to “Hush Hush” got everyone and their mom moving to the beat.
This was a bittersweet show for them. With this show being one of the many sold-out shows during their tour, they were grateful to be playing this specific show in Carrboro, NC that night. They talked about how on their first time ever traveling outside of Memphis, TN, they came and played in Raleigh for a total of 11 people:
“… so, there’s like 900 of you here now and that was like three years ago, so thank you… this tour has been a dream come true.”
Jordan expressed how being surrounded by people who all have at least one thing in common, who came out to have a good time, is special and what they want to see at shows. I have seen so many artists, big and little, just fly through their set and not take time to speak to the audience. This was almost like a breath of fresh air to see them be able to connect with their audience, not only through their lyrics but also just being able to speak whatever is on their minds during the set.
Crowd interaction is always something I love to witness during sets. Most of the time artists will either ignore what the crowd has to offer or take something and just set it aside. This time around was different. At one point in the show, a few people towards the front of the crowd who were wearing pink cowboy hats decided to try and get the guys to wear them onstage. During a break in between songs, they passed them up to the front where Burgess took the hats and distributed them to the other members. Sporting the hats during the last two songs, they threw them back before walking off stage (before the encore of course).
The crowd fell silent for a few seconds when they walked off stage before we all started chanting “Daphne Blue”, signaling them to come back out to play the crowd favorite song. Ending the night with the last three songs, another unexpected event happened. This was Valley’s last show before they made their journey back to Canada, so of course, they had to have one last celebratory night. Before we realized what was happening, they popped up on stage, during the last song “Daphne Blue”, spraying silly string into the crowd and covering everyone on stage. Hugging one another and taking a bow with all of them on stage, it was a night a lot of us won’t forget.
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