Citizen – Frankie’s Inner City – 12.30.17

Citizen, Freedom, & The Flats
Frankies Inner City – Toledo, OH – 12.30.17
Photographer: Kyle Smutzki

Outside of Frankies Inner City might have been nine degrees, but from the time you stepped foot into the building and found your way through the traffic jam of people hanging around the merch tables, you were reminded that you were walking into a show that had made history for being the fastest show to sell out this venue.

The cold weather stopped no one from showing up to this night of jams.

The Flats opened up the show, and the eagerness of everyone awaiting became settled.

Coming into the show I will admit that I had only heard a couple of their songs prior, just to get an idea of how their set might be. I was intrigued, but I just left it at that. Once they started playing it felt as if I were one of the few in their hometown venue that didn’t know every word of their songs.

Since seeing The Flats, it left me wanting to hear more of their work, and have been playing their album Auburn In The Everlast (which is “name your price” on their BandCamp right now). I feel the need to say the relaxing vocal harmonies mixed with mellow instrumental tones in that record are something I love and cannot get enough.

This band gave me a Bayside or Taking Back Sunday vibe and those are all bands that I think very highly of. Few songs that stick out the most to me on this record are: “Electric Light”, “Transparent”, and “Unviable In Your World”.

Just the night before, Freedom had a show in Detroit at the El Club, celebrating the release of their record Never Had a Choice that dropped a few months back, but don’t think they slacked on bringing the 100% hardcore energy with them to this show, because they didn’t.

If you went to this event somehow not knowing about Freedom, I can guarantee the power they brought out in their set left an impact on you – I say this with certainty because as soon as Nick struck the first note on his guitar, I instantly saw the crowd split apart and without skipping a beat everyone on the floor was moving. The show instantly turned into a hardcore show with a full display of pileups and mic grabs.

A band billed from both Toledo and Detroit, Citizen opened their set with “Jet” and “In The Middle of It All“; their two singles from their tremendous 2017 release – As You Please. The room, including myself, became electric while hitting every note alongside lead singer Mat Kerekes, throughout their entire set.

This show was an excellent way to send off 2017.

I enjoyed being able to catch some of my favorite artists play songs off some of my favorite releases in 2017 and leaving the show with another band to check out.

I want to thank anyone who put this event together for us all- thank you to the all of the performers for giving us a great show and thank you to the staff at Frankies for being nothing but respectful and showing the utmost kindness to myself and everyone else at this sold-out event.

–

Citizen

 

Freedom

 

The Flats