Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties at The Studio at Webster Hall
photo by Amanda Hatfield

Aaron West & the Roaring 20s (with Cam of Sorority Noise) played Webster Studio with Dryjacket & Empty Houses (pics)

Aaron West & the Roaring Twenties is the folky solo project of Wonder Years singer Dan Campbell, though for their current tour they’re playing as a seven-piece band. They began the tour last night (3/1) at NYC’s Studio at Webster Hall, where Dan was backed by a drummer, bassist, guitarist, and three horn players (including Sorority Noise/Old Gray singer Cam Boucher). They sounded excellent and super full, and the packed crowd ate up every second of it. There were maybe two times that Dan asked the audience to sing along but he never needed to. They were yelling the words louder than he was from start to finish.

He played stuff off last year’s Bittersweet EP, some older songs, and his covers of The Mountain Goats’ “Going to Georgia” and The Weakerthans’ “My Favourite Chords.” The latter was recently released on Bandcamp, and proceeds go to the ACLU.

Opening the show, which was already full before anyone took the stage, was NJ’s Dryjacket, who recently released the very good For Posterity. They do the Kinsella-style mathy emo thing (and all four members of the band really have the chops to pull it off), but they don’t let the complexities get in the way of big hooks. After them it was pop-soul band Empty Houses, whose lineup includes former members of Fireworks.

Our photographer was at the Laura Marling show first and missed Dryjacket, but pictures of Aaron West and Empty Houses are in the gallery above. Here’s a couple Instagrams of Dryjacket:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRI_sRwgVGb/?tagged=dryjacket

photos by Amanda Hatfield