Innovative Indie Rock Bands in the making
Metro, located in Wrigleyville Chicago IL, was electric this past Friday night. Thanks to the bands Neptune’s Core, Smut, and Friko the entire venue was interacting with an indie rock atmosphere. All groups featured were memorable in their vocal ranges, and their abilities to get the audience dancing, clapping and jumping throughout the evening was addicting.
The opening act, Neptune’s Core, is a Chicagoan all-female band that knew how to get a show started. All members voices pair in an extremely cohesive way, where their indie rock energy carries through their music. It is composed of two sets of sisters, Kaitlin Cywinski on drums and Jacqueline Cywinski on guitar and vocals, and Sofie Richter on guitar and vocals and Hannah Richter on bass. For their ages ranging from 15-18, their maturity in their skills of songwriting and playing instruments are as wild as their energy on stage is. The band recently released an EP named Called Upon in August of 2023, which was playing during the show, including some new unreleased music. Neptune’s Core vividly embodies a group that is on the up and up.
With the crowd inspired and their bodies awoken, the next group Smut goes on stage. Smut is a moodier and grungier pop genre of music. Their set started off overall monotone, letting the instruments speak for themselves, which stood out, like the singer Tay Roebuck‘s voice did. This Chicago based band has a talent for matching their emotions to their music. Particularly at the end of Smut’s show, Roebuck’s voice was pouring into the microphone, accompanied by Bell Cenower’s bass, Aiden O’Conner’s drums, and Andrew Min’s and Sam Ruschman’s guitar skills. As a band, everyone has their moments but also comes together in an explosive way that sends the crowd cheering. In September of 2023 the group released a single called "18 Tons" and has other singles and two albums. By the end of their time on stage, Smut was personable to the audience and didn’t hide their love for performing live.
Continuing with the Indie Rock music, Friko was the last to perform. The group played a wide range of songs from upbeat to sad music that the audience was satisfied with. Friko knows how to put on a show based on their energy while jumping around on stage. Watching them perform felt like watching people have fun in the purest form. The group started off as a project after graduating high school which included Niko Kapetan, Luke Stamos, and Bailey Minzenberger in 2019. Last year in August of 2023, Friko signed with the label ATO Records, and announced plans for their debut album in September. The album Where we’ve been, Where we go from here, came out on February 16, 2024. Throughout their set, Friko kept alternating a few members of the group for different songs, which was a unique touch that kept the audience engaged, other than the compelling energy of the members on stage.
