by Rish Hanco
Folks trickle into the Goodwill on a Saturday night to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the local shop Chip’s Vintage. The love and community-feeling is palpable, making it easy to forget the bitter cold outside. DJs Co-op and Hunnicutt hone in on the feeling and bring it to the fore, spinning jams to move the crowd and permeating the spaces between bands with warmth and energy.
The room is steadily filling up with warm bodies when Carlo Capobianco takes the stage, dripping with popstar charm and iconic 80s-inspired style. He tethers performance to the crowd with teasing banter, playful amid the sentiment and passion of each heartfelt ballad that is belted out by the band. In one electrifying set, heartache and joy are intertwined.
This electricity carries the crowd through the break between sets as JayWood preps. Band members, DJs, staff, and regulars all share glances and call out to one another across the floor, the words lost to the crowd but a sense of intimacy lingering.
This intimacy unfurls toward the audience as JayWood launches into the first song, welcoming us into a universe of security, comfort, and Good Will (what better venue could there be for this show?). The band plays effortlessly and is soothing; Jeremy Haywood-Smith’s lyrics remind us of change in a way that feels like everything is both meaningful and manageable. He takes the audience on a tour of his own experiences, full of soaring twinkling space, always with a return to that which is close and grounded.
By the end of JayWood the crowd is floating.
Jasmyn floats with them as she takes the stage in her turn and dives into a series of intoxicating beats. The room swirls with colour, and her vocals wash over the crowd in earnest. Once more, feelings of joy and delight intermingle with that bittersweet resignation toward things which move us onward, individually and collectively.
The crowd bubbles over with a warmth that will carry them through the night.