By Sloane Samberson
Staff Writer
DALLAS – The lyrics “Ah, ah, ah, ah! Oh, oh, oh, oh! I’m with you,” echoed throughout South Side Ballroom as indie rock band, Grouplove, opened with “I’m With You” the leadoff track on their most recently released album,“Spreading Rumors”.
Hannah Hooper, Christian Zucconi, Sean Gadd, Andrew Wessen and Ryan Rabin are the five spunky and creatively brilliant best friends behind Grouplove. According to The Owl Mag, they met in 2009 on an artist commune in Crete. There was an immediate click and realization that their different talents could form a beautiful musical masterpiece.
“Grouplove is all about being unique and creative which is something I believe in,” Flower Mound High School senior and attendee Dax Matlock said. “Their music expresses creativity better than anyone else can.”
The band performed 15 songs in total including “Shark Attack”, “Hippy Hill” and “Raspberry” from “Spreading Rumors”and “Itchin on a Photograph”, “Spun” and “Tongue Tied” from “Never Trust a Happy Song”.
Grouplove played its recently released song “Back In The 90’s” which is the closing credits theme song for BoJack Horseman, a new animated series on Netflix. It also covered Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love”, a nice surprise for the Yoncé fans in the room – so basically everyone.
“My favorite part of Grouplove’s performance was how wrapped up they got into the music, like how they would jump around on stage,” Coppell High School junior Linda Castranova said. “It made the crowd really responsive and comfortable with dancing and singing along.”
A different aspect of the show is how sponsors, Honda Civic, advertised Hooper’s artwork, stressing the importance of art whether it be through music, pen or paint. Most of Hooper’s artwork is abstract; a perfect portrayal of uniqueness and pure creativity.
Grouplove made South Side Ballroom feel so much more intimate and small. The crowd did not act as if they were fighting to get a good view but rather as one big family, happy to be there, dancing and jumping until breathless, living in the moment.
Closing with its famed song “Colours”, the room filled with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink. The experience resembled the center of a rainbow, full of joy and away from the sorrows of this world.
The queen of creativity (Hooper) said it best herself, “If we could do anything on this tour, it would be to tell people to make art, to be creative. Put down your phones and makes something with you hands.”
