Lincoln Hall was in for a treat this past Saturday with Oklahoma indie rock outfit, BRONCHO (Ryan Lindsey, Nathan Price, Ben King, Penny Pitchlynn) bringing the heat to the windy city. After releasing a couple of singles since their 2018 album, Bad Behavior, BRONCHO have embarked on a much anticipated extensive US tour. Even though they don’t have much new material to play, they have PLENTY of eminent music already out in the world that surely left Lincoln Hall buzzing after the show.
Warming up the crowd for BRONCHO, LABRYS (Penny Pitchlynn from BRONCHO) played the most perfect “calm-before-the-storm” set. The band put out on their own; it gives insight on who they are outside of the bigger band setting. Here, Pitchlynn effortlessly got the crowd in tune with her energy. As the room filled more and more, LABRYS graced the audience with her calm vocals paired perfectly with rapturous guitars.
Fans quickly crowded at the front of the stage as LABRYS came to a close; eager for Broncho to come on. As more smoke emerged from the stage, the floor grew into a mob. As the stage lights came on, it seemed like BRONCHO materialized from the smoke, opening with their powerhouse “Try Me Out Sometime.” The room was filled with a cloudy haze that perfectly fit their reverby vocals and euphoric guitars. Their energetic song “China” had fans climbing on stage and free falling back onto the crowd, which led to a handful of crowd surfers throughout the remainder of the show. Of course crowd surfing isn’t necessary to make a show great, but it does make it slightly better and more memorable.
Lead singer Ryan Lindsey was not much of a talker to the crowd, which I would normally detest; however, BRONCHO is the kind of band that lets the music do all the talking. They have jams on jams and I wanted to hear as much as possible; and they did not disappoint. The show was filled with so many back-to-back bangers and of course they had to include their viral hit “Class Historian” in their encore.
Playing an almost 30 song set list (almost their whole discography!), BRONCHO kept their fans VERY well-fed that night. They put on an extensively satisfying show. You can tell that they are the type of band that’s in it for the music. They’ve been around for quite a while now, believe it or not, and they’ve put out many great albums over the years. I hope they make a return to Chicago soon with plans and/or news to release a 5th studio album after their long tour is up.
All photos by Andrew Lagunas