A hometown show always carries a little extra special weight and that feeling was in the air last week when The Summer Set returned to Phoenix on their current headlining run. The Meet Me at the Record Store Tour turned The Van Buren into the band’s own little corner of heaven in celebration of their latest album and they delivered both new material and nostalgic numbers.
The quartet whirled onstage to the tune of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” right into “For the First Time” and the delight from the audience was palpable. TSS returned to making music after a seemingly endless hiatus and watching them onstage now, it’s clear that they’re right back where they belong and are still having the time of their lives performing for fans eager to hold on to this band.
While there were plenty of new tunes in the set- “Teenagers” and “Flowers” were notable highlights- the band has not forgotten their roots. They took things back to (nearly) the beginning (read: 2011) with some fan favorites like “When We Were Young” and “Must Be the Music” and made sure to perform at least one song from each of their previous albums. If the theme was record store dance party, the audience was right in step with the band, throwing up their hands to “Street Lightning” and “Girls Freak Me Out”. Singer Brian Dales had his own shuffling dance steps on lock while guitarist John Gomez and his brother Stephen paced the length of the stage to smile and sing along with the fans on the barricade. Drummer Jess Bowen bashed away at her kit with a huge grin throughout the set, holding down the rhythm for the entirety of the show.
The group decided to slow things down towards the end of the set for “About a Girl” (and a surprise snippet of The Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris”) before a proper acoustic rendition of “Legendary”. The main performance concluded with the whole room shouting along to “Dizzy” before they all returned to take things back 2005 on “Chelsea” and “Lightning in a Bottle”. One thing about Phoenix is that these fans will always show up for The Summer Set and the band sent that love right back to the audience on Friday night. It was a proper welcome home for TSS and every moment was locked away as something precious until the next time the band makes the journey back to their waiting hometown.
