Concert Review: The Lonely Generation Tour

Cleveland, Ohio was the sixth stop for headliner Echosmith and special guests Weathers and Jayden Bartels on their 2020 expedition, ‘The Lonely Generation Tour’. As someone who saw Echosmith as an opening band on the 2015 ‘Blurryface Tour’, I knew to expect one thing: a pink umbrella.

But let me start from the beginning. The Beachland Ballroom has a capacity of about 500 people, and the types of people that made up this audience was unlike anything I’ve ever seen at a show before. The first opener, Jayden Bartels, seemed to appeal to the entire crowd despite being fifteen years old. Her four songs (including a cover of Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts”) lacked a diverse sound from one another, but her enthusiasm and energy on stage managed to keep the crowd engaged and excited during her short set. 

The next opener, Weathers, attracted a plethora of high school-aged girls who screamed, danced and sang along to every word. There’s no better indicator to a good live performance than a dedicated fanbase, so when the girls in front of me apologized pre-show for their intensive dancing, I knew it was about to get good. The band’s alternative/rock sound was similar to that of early Panic! at the Disco, but still managed to maintain a sense of originality. Although I’d never listened to the group before that night, songs like “1983” and “Happy Pills” seemed really familiar to me, and by the end of their set I felt like I knew all of the lyrics.

Onto Echosmith. As previously stated, I saw the band almost five years ago when they opened for twenty one pilots on The Blurryface Tour. Because I have a horrible memory and took no videos of the opening bands that night, the only thing that stuck in my adolescent mind was the fact that frontwoman Sydney Sierota carried around a pink parasol for one of the songs. The imagery of the twirling prop perfectly described the aura of the band– upbeat, energetic and bubbly personalities seemed to radiate from every member. The band started out as a sibling quartet, but after the birth of lead guitarist Jamie Sierota’s first child, the band evolved into a trio. Despite this, the chemistry between the three siblings and their touring musicians remained electric. Pure joy beamed from Sydney, Graham and Noah onstage, offstage, and in the music they released.

Throughout the entire show, fellow BSR-er Jenn and I discussed the vibes of the show. We weren’t entirely sure who the target demographic of any of the artists on The Lonely Generation Tour were. The crowd had an interesting mix of people who were old enough to be parents but had no children with them, high schoolers, a few college-aged kids, and two eleven year old girls who were over the moon to be seeing their favorite band, Echosmith, live. The non-parents mostly stood in The Ballroom nodding and drinking, whereas the smaller amount of high-schoolers seemed to herd over to the merchandise table to talk to Weathers after their set. But by the last few songs and the encore of the band’s most popular hit, “Cool Kids”, the entire crowd was singing along, dancing and having a great time.

You can still catch The Lonely Generation Tour, so check out tickets here. Their new album of the same name can also be purchased or streamed on any major music platform.