When the Pep Talks Tour rolled through Phoenix on Wednesday night, the people were ready. Fans ventured to The Van Buren for a little bit of folk, a little bit of hip hop, and a whole lot of rock n’ roll from Judah & the Lion and supporting act Flora Cash.
Flora Cash met on SoundCloud and started making music together in Minneapolis shortly after, and now they bridge that Swedish-American gap with Shpresa Lleshaj teaching the crowd some Swedish words at every show. The fusion of her voice with Cole Randall’s had the room mesmerized during their set, fully focused on dreamy single “You’re Somebody Else” closing it out.
It was a hard pivot from that hypnosis when Judah & the Lion took the stage, person after person appearing to bring different elements together for a huge sound. As the crowd screamed along—I NEED A PEP TALK—frontman Judah Akers bounced around in his striped jumpsuit and couldn’t stop smiling. Meanwhile, the banjo and mandolin, courtesy of Nate Zuercher and Brian Macdonald, kept each track varied.
Atlas caught the action that picked up the midweek slump. Check it out in the photos below!
Story and photos by Taylor Gilliam
