On Oct. 9, the Ohio-based folk band Oliver Hazard performed the second show of their Raindrop River tour at the Aggie Theatre. The band was accompanied by Minnesota- and Montana-based bluegrass band The Last Revel, performing co-headlined shows for half of Oliver Hazard’s tour.
The two bands, while having only met the night prior to starting the tour in Denver, found a way to intertwine their audiences.
“A lot of tours that we’ve done in the past have been much more in the genre of bluegrass and more of that world, but this is the first time that we’ve shared a stage with a band that isn’t that directly,” said Ryan Acker, banjo player and vocalist for The Last Revel. “It’s exciting because it is a fresh group of people. I think that when we built the idea of this tour and built everything out, it was like, ‘Oh, this is exciting because our fans will really complement each other.'”
The bluegrass stomping with folk swaying perfectly mimicked that of a low-light FoCo house show, which worked out well, as that is exactly the name of Oliver Hazard’s game. The stage was set up with bar stools that had guitars leaning up against them, hanging string lights, and of course, it was impossible not to notice the multitude of little white lamps scattered across the stage.
“We did play a lot of living rooms when we first started, and with that, when we started playing venues, we wanted to find a way to bring the living room to the stage,” said Michael Belazis, guitar player and vocalist for Oliver Hazard. “And when we ordered this (lamp), we thought it would be a big one; clearly, it is not. But we embraced it all the same, and instead of taking it back, we put it on the piano, and we noticed that folks were taking more pictures of the lamp than they were of us. We’re not even mad; it’s kind of cool. It’s a little inside joke.”
What started as an attempt to stay true to the band’s roots and bring comfort to the big stage ended in a different form of shared community. When playing in Denver, someone stole the tiny lamp, leading the band to start a program inspired by their fans’ love and theft of the lamps. The Tiny Lamp Fan Club not only rewards Oliver Hazard fans with a tiny lamp after attending 10 shows, but it also brings the community together.
“It gets better every single time,” said Ashlyne Grubb, an audience member. “I can’t wait for my tiny lamp. … This is my third, so I’m getting close.”
While Oliver Hazard closed an unforgettable night, memories were already made in the first half. The Last Revel, a slightly lesser-known band, left some people who had come to the Aggie that night Googling their name.
“It was incredible; this is by far the best show we’ve played in Fort Collins — really great venue (and) an incredible crowd,” Acker said.
“Everyone is excited that the music between the bands really does complement each other, whether it’s on the front end or the back end. I’m excited to just see what it feels like when it switches, to have the crowd already fired up.” -Ryan Acker, The Last Revel’s banjo player and vocalist
The band’s combination of bluegrass and folk made audience members want to dance, generating an energy only parallel to a springtime outdoor music festival. For spectators who didn’t know them before the show, they now know exactly why the two bands are co-headliners for the first portion of the tour.
“In other scenarios where we play first, more often than not, the band that we’re playing with is much more popular than we are,” Acker said. “This feels interesting because we feel much more like peers in a way, where we are sharing a space. … This feels like we’re building something together.”
And build they did. Mixing the two audiences created the perfect combination on both sides, where the crowd got to hear the music they came for as well as discover a new song or two.
“Everyone is excited that the music between the bands really does complement each other, whether it’s on the front end or the back end,” Acker said. “I’m excited to just see what it feels like when it switches, to have the crowd already fired up.”
Reach Ruby Secrest at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @RMCollegian.
