Judah & The Lion puts on motivational performance but is overshadowed by openers

Judah & The Lion brought energy and positivity to the Orpheum last Tuesday night, but the openers were truly what made the performance memorable.

Tall Heights opened the show with the most authentic set of the night. From the first stunning harmony in their initial song “No Man Alive,” this electro-folk duo based out of Boston grabbed the audience's attention. In fact, Tall Heights was the only band of the night that was able to keep the crowd from obnoxiously disrupting their performance.

At one point during their fabulous set, they had us call the person standing next to us and put our phones on top of each other, which created an unbelievable surround-sound humming effect. It felt like the audience was part of the band, contributing to a unique sound and atmosphere for the performance.

Tall Heights blew me away throughout the show with their amazing harmonies and distinct instrumentation. They embraced simplicity and engaged the audience by letting their music do the talking. They should have had much more stage time than the 45 minutes they were allotted. I didn’t feel the typical anticipation after an opener leaves the stage. I wanted more when they walked off after performing their most popular song “Spirit Gold.”

The second band to perform was Colony House, the upbeat alternative rock band from Nashville. They started their set with a bang by walking out one by one to “The Hey Song” before breaking into their one huge hit, “Silhouettes.” They took the risk of opening with their most popular song, and for a while, they were pretty disconnected with the majority of the crowd.

They did have some loyal fans who sang every song at the top of their lungs and jumped throughout each chorus into the rest of the crowd. The only thing keeping me engaged was their phenomenal drummer, Will Chapman, who was intentionally set up at the front of the stage for a good reason.

Approaching the end of their set, lead singer Caleb Chapman took the stage by himself to perform two memorable acoustic songs. This seemed to help reignite the audience and gave Chapman a chance to boast his phenomenal voice.

Following his solo, the rest of the band came back out and the audience seemed to reignite for their last two songs, “You and I” and “You Know It.” Colony House did what they were meant to do: get the crowd excited, with some additional memorable moments of excellence throughout their set.

Judah & The Lion attempted to turn their set into a huge dance party. I was worried someone started the wrong backtrack when T-Pain’s “Booty Wurk (One Cheek At a Time)” came on the speakers right as the set was about to start. I was wrong. Judah and his six-piece band all walked out to the front of the stage with a choreographed dance routine, which pumped up the band more than it’s confused crowd.

Judah Akers followed the boy band-esque introduction with a speech to help motivate the audience to feel like a family during the show. This was just one attempt of many begging the audience to have fun.

Judah & The Lion never made the focus of the show on their music; they focused on making a party. This was a shame because their music was great when they stayed true to themselves. They do a brilliant job of combining so many different genres in their songs and sounded great live.

All Judah & The Lion wanted was for everyone to love them. Instead of using their own anthem songs to help excite the crowd, they played frat party favorite, “Mr. Brightside.”

Directly following, Akers gave a five-minute motivational speech about how we all can do anything we want with our lives. The lecture followed suit in similar character to the concert — it all felt excruciatingly staged.

Judah & The Lion had some great moments. Two of the most memorable moments of the set were when they brought each opener on stage to perform with them. They also succeeded in making the Orpheum come to life. They had a sophisticated set and light show for each song. Even though it felt forced at times, the crowd was very responsive and loved each one of Akers excessive, but show-stunting moments.

Judah & The Lion finished the show with their radio hit, “Take It All Back.” It started off great until they tried to be Skrillex and turn their ‘Folk n Roll’ style into hard EDM. Judah & The Lion showed their potential to be an outstanding act, but they simply tried too hard instead of letting their music rule the show.