Basked under the fluorescent lights of The Canopy Club, indie-rock groups Certainly So and Coyote Island presented a night of expressive music on Oct. 28.
The crowd was thin when Certainly So began their sound check, with only a few people murmuring quietly, sitting on stools at the bar.
Running 10 minutes behind, guitarist and vocalist Tanner Gray apologized for the delay, bantering with the audience as his bandmates geared up for the set.
Certainly So began their set around 6:50 p.m., performing intimate songs fueled by rich vocals and insistent guitar melodies, which made for a psychedelic-sounding experience.
Made up of four men — three guitarists/vocalists and a drummer — Certainly So is a band hailing from Birmingham, Alabama.
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According to The Canopy Club’s website, childhood friends Tanner Gray and Colby Wilson have been writing music together for over ten years. They’ve drawn inspiration from many genres and eras, like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Grateful Dead, Vampire Weekend, John Mayer and Her’s.
Emily Goodman, sophomore in Engineering, said she felt like she was levitating when she listened to the band.
“They kind of reminded me of Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac and also Glass Animals,” Goodman said.
Halfway through the set, lead singer Gray formally introduced the band before performing one of their more intimate songs of the night, “Alabama Blues.”
“Me and Kobe grew up together in Birmingham Alabama,” Gray said as his band members plucked their guitar strings behind him.
“We wrote shitty songs together in middle school and then in high school, and eventually they got a little better. All of that to say our next song is called Alabama Blues. It’s about leaving Alabama, we ended up moving to Nashville and now we travel a lot … It’s just a song about where we came from.”
Following Certainly So was Coyote Island, the musical vision of Mike O’Hehir. According to The Canopy Club’s website, Coyote Island is a fresh blend of folk, reggae and pop with world music influences creating a playful global sound around stories that embrace the human journey.
Coyote Island took the stage around 8 p.m. after a brief intermission.
O’Hehir introduced them as a band from Maine, announcing that this was almost the final stop of their three-week tour with Certainly So.
Coyote Island’s debut full-length album “Holy Illusion” was released on June 16, O’Hehir announced, telling the audience members to stream the album on Spotify before diving into another funk-fueled melody, weaving endless guitar melodies with a steady drum track and rich vocals.
Though there were few people in the audience, the room filled with cheers after each song. The members of Coyote Island all moved with the beat of their music under the fluorescent lights, smiling through each song of their set.
“I think definitely the amount of people that are here got overridden by that Halloween banger that’s happening tonight,” Goodman said. “But the band was really good … I really enjoy when bands can basically say that they make drugs better, and that’s this band.”
Certainly So and Coyote Island will end their tour on Oct. 29 in Madison, Wisconsin.
