Last Sunday, the Santa Barbara Bowl hosted a number of alternative rock’s hippest musicians at this year’s sold-out Summer Round-Up, including area indie-pop band The Blues and Greys, Family of the Year, Walk the Moon, Banks, and headliners Of Monsters and Men.
The five-hour show kicked off at 5 p.m. with a brief and unfortunately low attended set from The Blues and Greys, followed shortly after by indie-folk band Family of the Year. While it would have been nice to see more songs from these two groups, as it seemed like they were just warming up as each of their sets finished, the bands were on a tight but efficient schedule. Nevertheless, both bands sounded just as good live as they do on record, and they brought the first wave of energy to a previously low-key audience.
Walk the Moon stormed the stage shortly after at 6:45 p.m. to the tune of The Lion King’s “Circle of Life,” eliciting an uproar from the crowd of face-painted millennials on the ground floor. Once they were certain they’d captured the audience’s attention, the band launched into their first single, “Anna Sun,” which the fans greeted with enthusiasm. Beaming with pride, lead singer Nicholas Petricca shouted “I don’t know if you all came here to dance, but we certainly did!” After a cover of The Killers’s “All These Things I’ve Done,” which sounded unfortunately similar to a karaoke rendition, the band finished their 40-minute set with their newest hit and unofficial anthem “Shut Up and Dance.”