Highly Suspect with Dead Poet Society
Mercury Ballroom
Louisville, KY
February 14th, 2023
Alternative rock band Highly Suspect brought their Ice Cold Winter Tour to Louisville on Valentine’s Day to a sold out crowd! The venue was packed, with fans filling out the floor and balcony, in eager anticipation of the evening ahead! Starting out the evening was LA 4 piece rock band Dead Poet Society. Having released a series of singles and 2 albums [the most recent being 2022’s -!- (Deluxe)] since forming in 2013, they played a varied set list that had the crowd dancing and their fans singing along! Chatting a bit with the crowd throughout their set, frontman Jack Underkofler expressed how happy they were to be out on the road with Highly Suspect and thanked everyone for being here this evening! By the end of their set, they had the crowd nice and warmed!
Closing out the evening was Highly Suspect! As the band came out on stage, the crowd erupted into cheers! Starting off the set with “Bath Salts”, “Mom”, and “Bloodfeather” from their debut 2015 album Mister Asylum, the crowd was in high spirits, singing along to every word. Focusing on the music for the first few songs, the band then started chatting with the crowd and partook in funny banter with each other and the crowd. The band released their latest album last year, Midnight Demon Club, and as they started playing their hit “Natural Born Killer” a few songs in, frontman Johnny Stevens stopped the song to tell the crowd, “You guys helped this song go to number 1 last year, so it’s only fair that you sing it with us!”, before continuing. The crowd was more than happy to honor his request, passionately singing along! Performing several other songs from the new album, including “Midnight Demon Club”, “Ice Cold”, and “Pink Lullabye”, they also performed some older hits, such as “My Name Is Human”, “Serotonia”, “Lydia”, and “For Billy”. Telling the crowd about how a really sweet fan gave him flowers for Valentine’s Day, Johnny then said that they unfortunately would probably not survive on the tour bus, before proceeding to toss them into the crowd, with many fans scrambling to catch one! About halfway through the set, the band left the stage while Rich Meyer (bass/backing vocals) sang the track “Arizona” from the band’s 2019 album MCID. With just him and and acoustic guitar, the song really highlighted his incredible voice. Coming back out on stage for several more songs, Johnny expressed how much the band loved and appreciated their fans! Ending their set with “ATL”, they then performed a 2 song encore, closing out the evening with “Look Alive, Stay Alive” and “Pink Lullabye”! It was a great evening of music that no doubt left the crowd buzzing with excitement from a really fun night!
DEAD POET SOCIETY
HIGHLY SUSPECT