- Dec 4, 2023

A Parent's Perspective "THIS WILD LIFE & BROADSIDE” Show Review

What started out as an acoustic rock duo over a decade ago, has transformed the band THIS WILD LIFE into an all out concert that’s definitely a once in a lifetime experience that all concert goers need to see live firsthand. THIS WILD LIFE have recently been on their “TOUR STORY Tour” featuring none other than Broadside, Worry Club and Not My Weekend.

The west coast duo have been gaining a huge following especially with their TikTok channel where they’ve been covering the creation of some of their DIY stage props which have before included a giant Nintendo Gameboy which actually worked while dressing as Pokémon characters on stage to this latest tour of building an Etch A Sketch which goes along with the Pixar’s Toy Story theme down to the members of the band dressing up as Woody and Buzz from Toy Story.

NOVEMBER 21ST, 2023 PITTSBURGH, PA: This Wild Life along with Broadside, Worry Club and Not My Weekend are ready to play at the Thunderbird Cafe in Pittsburgh. The Thunderbird is an awesome indoor venue with an upstairs bar and entrance area that overlooks a giant concert hall with side bar and kitchen and plenty of room for merch tables.

The show kicked off around 7:00PM. Not My Weekend was up first. The band pumped out nearly a dozen of upbeat, poppy rock tunes, a lot of tracks from their latest record Shimmer Season which is out now. One of my favorite tracks from the record and from which they performed is their latest single Overload which features another one of my favorite pop-punk bands Magnolia Park.

After a brief intermission Worry Club was up next. The four-piece rock band is a wild variety of genres, it’s like a psychedelic grunge backbone meets the heart and soul of an emo and pop-punk kid. Each song was unpredictable but something you can definitely jam out to and there wasn’t a moment where the energy fell, they were always high energy with at any point one member of the band always jumping in the air.

BROADSIDE was up next and I’ve been dying to see this band live. Ever since their 2015 record Old Bones, I’ve been mildly obsessed with the band. Broadside kicked off the set with one of their latest tracks One Last Time from their recently released album Hotel Bleu and dove straight into the track that got me hooked on the band Coffee Talk from the aforementioned Old Bones record which would be the only track from that record played. The band dove into a few more tracks from the recently dropped Hotel Bleu album including Cruel, Bleu and my favorite Dazed and Confused while also playing track I Love You, I Love You It’s Disgusting from 2017’s Paradise album before closing out with track Foolish Behavior from 2020’s Into the Raging Sea LP.

After a final intermission This Wild Life was up. Lights dimmed and the giant Etch A Sketch screen lit up showing an animation of the band dressed as Woody and Buzz from the Toy Story movies while Randy Newman's You Got A Friend In Need played over the PA before diving into their opening track History from 2014's Clouded album, which is a full-band version of the track, similarly what happened to the following track, Westside.

Fan-favorite track Catie Rae played as fans yelled "Hey Hey Catie Rae" during the chorus and the giant Etch A Sketch blasted the lyrics across the screen before the band jumped into an impromptu sing-a-long to John Denver's Take Me Home Country Roads. Speaking of covers, the band ripped through blink-182's I Miss You which featured a remake of blink-182's original music video for the song playing over the Etch-A-Sketch screen with the band members dubbed in along with special guest vocalist Oliver Baxxter of Broadside joining the band on stage, but that wouldn't be the end of the night with covers!

Some of my favorite This WIld Life tracks Better With You, Pull Me Out and Over It were all played before getting more interactive and having a "battle" with "DJ Zurg", Zurg being the antagonist from the Toy Story films. The band went back and forth playing snippet covers of Pierce the Veil's King for a Day, Mayday Parade's Jamie All Over and Sleepwalking by Bring Me The Horizon which was a huge pop from the crowd, singing along to every word. This Wild Life continued on with track Concrete off of Clouded into Headfirst off of their 2018 Petaluma album before closing the night out with track If It's Cool With You, I'm Cool WIth Being Through off of 2021's album Ever Blossom.

If you've never seen This Wild Life live, they definitely put on an unforgettable performance. Jumping between instruments, playing some acoustic, some on ukulele, and some where the fans pretty much sing every lyric as well as a ton of fun covers and interactive things going on with fans during a definite high-energy performance.

- You can check out a photo gallery, and more below!