The Driver Era wants you to be obsessed with them and the fans that packed Arizona Financial Theatre last week were more than happy to oblige. Their Obsession Tour stopped in Phoenix on Thursday night, drawing a crowd of screaming 20-somethings decked out in sparkles and cowboy hats with all the trimmings to show TDE just how obsessed Arizona can be.
VALÉ opened the show with her high-energy, Latin-infused pop, drawing cheers from the barricade and beyond. The Colombian singer stirred up a stellar mix of influences on her tracks and delivered them with the poise and confidence of a seasoned performer, all backed by an incredible live band. She dazzled the room with a solid set of originals and threw in her own take on classic covers of “Oye como va” and “Hollaback Girl” to keep the party jumping. As she exited the stage, the applause for her set was just as enthusiastic as what was about to happen for The Driver Era.
Ross and Rocky Lynch are keeping The Driver Era all in the family- and while this may be a family oriented project (with brother Riker on bass and former R5 member Ellington Ratliff on a medley of keys and percussion), this is not a PG rated show. The Disney days are behind the Lynch brothers, with TDE being the evolution of their music as adults growing up alongside their legions of devoted fans. The show began behind an opaque curtain, a single spotlight illuminating Ross as he paced the stage’s scaffolding to the driving beat of “Touch”.
The first of many choruses of barking took hold of the audience, making the guys laugh as the night continued. The stage was bathed in blinding spotlights so fans didn’t miss a moment of the spectacle as Rocky held down the guitar solos while Ross shook his hips and shed his layers through “The Weekend”, “Low” and more. Even security throughout the venue could be spotted in TDE’s iconic cowboy hats as everyone in the room joined the band’s well-deserved hype train.
The middle of the set allowed Ross and Rocky to let loose on a medley of fan favorites that paid homage to the Teen Beach Movie days of old and the singing along to “Cruisin’ for a Bruisin” fully drowned out Ross’ own vocals. The band’s mellow California energy bleeds from every song- and none more so than “Afterglow” and the infectiously catchy “Malibu”. The main set closed out with “Don’t Take the Night” but TDE was not ready to let the night take Phoenix. They came back for a three song encore that found Ross stripping off his final layer, pink cowboy hat pulled low and hips swaying to really drive the fans wild on “Rumors” and “A Kiss”.
The Driver Era has been through, well, so many eras as a band and this tour has put them in front of their largest crowds to date and it’s easy to see how they got here. The energy in the room tiptoed the line between fun and feral (in the best way) and being able to perform in front of older, more mature audiences has allowed this duo of brothers to stretch creatively as their star grows brighter. If everything leading up to the Obsession Tour is any indication, the next time The Driver Era returns, it’ll be in even larger rooms around the world- if you aren’t already obsessed, you absolutely will be.
