I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it forever; I love Early Eyes. I’m so proud of these boys, and am honored to have watched them grow so much in just the past year. From basement shows, to selling out a Current sponsored, 7th St Entry show, They’ve definitely come into their own.

First on the bill was the grungy, 90s alt-inspired babes Sass, who I also love. I saw them a few months ago and fell in love with Stephanie Murk’s (also of Tony Peachka) energy and vocals. I remember going home and looking them up only to find that they just had one song online, “Ragged Strawberry”. It was really cool to see two sides of the music scene, bands that normally don’t play together, join up for this show.

Next up was The Happy Children of Normal Parents, another local fav who also seem to be growing exponentially in popularity. Folks last night might have recognized their new drummer as Jon Lindquist of the local, progressive rock band, Denim Matriarch – he’s probably the happiest drummer I’ve ever seen, like ever.  Despite a little mishap where Caleb broke two strings at once, The Happy Children put on a great show as always. It was nice to see ya’ll around again, we’ve missed you guys!

And of course, headlining was the beloved Early Eyes. Celebrating the release of their debut EP, Minutes, you could just tell how excited they all were to be there. Starting with a first with a few unreleased tracks, they then jumped into the EP, playing it straight through. With help from their friend Sophia Cruz on vocals (she’s also featured in the EP!) there was absolutely no lack of smiles or dancing. Early Eyes played a new song titled “Coffee” later in the set, followed by a whole list of shout outs starting with Wyatt’s mom who came from NJ, the openers and The Current, to Des’s best friend from high school, Steven.

The boys came back out for a two song encore that started with their beautiful cover of The Cure’s “Close To Me” – I didn’t scream louder the entire night (see the poorly shot snippet above). They closed the evening with the famed “Vape Juice” complete with the nearly entire audience rowdily screaming along. When I asked Jake if he had anything he wanted to say about the night, he went back and forth on what to say, joking about how he wanted to stage dive and nobody caught him, and finally settled on “thank you so much for coming tonight, Maia!” When I thanked him for playing The Cure cover, he said he knew it was my favorite, and my love for Early Eyes only grew. Here’s to you, boys. Stay humble, for you are so loved.