Hailey Stewart | Rawr
A great band performance combined with a small-scale concert venue often makes for the best concert experience and Parachute’s performance at the Knitting Factory Concert House in Spokane April 15 was no exception.
The Spokane Knitting Factory is a small, bar-like venue, which holds both a dance floor for standing space during concerts and two levels of seating for those who want to relax and listen. Known for bringing in great acts like Parachute at a fairly reasonable price, there is no better place to attend a concert than at a Knitting Factory.
With four substantial albums since the band’s inception, there was no lack of musical diversity for the night. The Wide Awake Tour, the band’s first since 2014, showcases Parachutes fourth studio album “Wide Awake.” Parachute’s tour stretched from New York all the way to California with 31 concert stops along the way.
Parachute brought along two opening acts for the night.
Brynn Elliott, a fairly new artist to the music scene, opened up the night with a set of six songs from her first two albums. Her bluesy folk vibe set the stage for what would become a great evening of music.
The second opening act was Jon McLaughlin, a pop rock singer and songwriter who has been churning out similar sounds to Parachute since 2007. McLaughlin sang a set of seven songs from his most recent album “Like Us,” along with his most well known track, “Beautiful Disaster.” With most of McLaughlin’s songs consisting of soft piano keys and acoustic instrumentals, his 20 minutes on stage was the perfect preamble to Parachute’s upbeat pop sound.
Both opening acts were wonderful at getting the crowd ready for the main show through audience participation and a sing-along style of performing.
During the short wait between performances, while an array of instruments were being set up on stage for Parachute’s set, both Elliott and McLaughlin greeted fans who were willing to lose their spot in the crowd and meet the opening performers.
As Parachute walked onto the brightly lit stage, the band was met with a loud roar from the fairly small crowd and the voice of the lead singer, Will Anderson, burst out into the first song of the night, “Without You.”
After an amazing first performance from the band, Anderson introduced the rest of the three-man group. Kit French, the band’s instrumental “jack of all trades,” and Johnny Stubblefield the band’s drummer have been a part of Parachute since its conception.
The band then played “Didn’t See It Coming” and “Meant To Be” from its third album “Overnight.” After playing a variety of songs from the band’s last two albums, Anderson switched things up and delivered a flurry of classics from its first two albums, “Losing Sleep” and “The Way It Was.” “She (For Liz)” garnered loud praise from the crowd as the band’s first big song has always done.
With only a few song left in the set list, Parachute eased into some slower, more acoustic music like “Jennie” and “Forever and Always.”
To finish up the night, French, the instrumental genius of the group, revamped “She Is Love” with a saxophone solo, and Anderson showed off his skills on the guitar.
However, Parachute fans knew that the band wouldn’t just walk off the stage without singing one of its most famous songs. As the crowd shouted encore, Parachute began to play an amazingly revitalized rendition of “Kiss Me Slowly.”
Complete with great opening acts, a light show and a variation of the band’s best songs, there is no better place to be on a Friday night than at a concert from Parachutes Wide Awake Tour.