The Rebel Lounge became a tranquil sanctuary for indie music lovers on Saturday evening when PRYVT’s Back to Reality Tour finally reached Arizona. The Canadian-Korean duo of vocalist Hanuel and guitarist JT sold out the Phoenix venue, packing the house with longtime devoted fans for a lovely early show.
The band’s current touring bassist Yeonggi opened the evening by debuting a few of his original tracks for the first time in a live setting. The already full room stood in respectful and comfortable silence, letting Yeonggi mesmerize them with his own take on a more lo-fi sound. He previewed his new single, “As the Seasons Change” and threw in a Daniel Caesar cover to the delight of the fans filming on the barricade. While he expressed his own nervousness at performing as a solo artist, his music had a quiet confidence that shows his natural talent and what’s to come for his musical endeavors. The room was enamored with his performance and cheered encouragingly as his brief set came to an end.
The sun had just barely set when PRYVT took the stage to round out an early evening at Rebel. The duo arrived with little fanfare but the crowd welcomed them with loud applause before settling in for a refreshingly chill set. The band is celebrating their latest album, Back to Reality, and started the performance with complementing tracks “Heaven” and “Angel” from said album. Older material like “Blue Salvia” and “Yours” had the audience singing along in a rather subdued manner, causing the guys onstage to laugh and encourage the fans to turn up the volume. Both the band and the fans expressed mutual shyness before a few bold attendees started shouting compliments in the direction of the stage and lightening the mood in the middle of the show.
The show was due to end quite early but the band had plenty of time for an extensive encore after constant applause brought them back onstage. By then everyone had finally warmed up to each other and the night concluded on both sad and happy notes with “If It’s Not You” and “Mona Lisa”. With each successive visit to Arizona, PRYVT has amassed a larger following and their fiercely devoted fanbase certainly showed plenty of love on this headlining run. The audience all but demanded a promise that they come back as soon as possible before the night meandered to a relaxed and satisfying conclusion for the sold out crowd.
