Will Hoge at the Double Door in Chicago, IL
Tonight was a night I was looking at on my calendar as a show I wanted to see, just for the sake of me seeing it, as selfish as this may sound. With four shows to cover in five days, this was my night. Now, I am new fan of Will Hoge and only knew about them through my favorite band, Shinedown and their amazing guitar player, Zach Myers, as they ended their long tour run with an acoustic tour which Will Hoge happened to open for and played as well all acoustic.
Seeing this show twice got me hooked on Will Hoge but I have never seen him headline and play electric as well. Will Hoge’s brother, Josh Hoge was a special guest for about a week worth of shows and opened for him. Josh played an amazing set that had a country feel to it with a rockabilly feel. Showing the same amazing voice as his brother, this was shown in his 40 minute set that ended with Ain’t no Sunshine that sounded as smooth as 15 year bourbon. I will be sure to check out Josh next time and you should do the same if you see he is playing close to you.
With a quick change over between sets, Will Hoge came out to a full house that came out to see him play on a Thursday night. Opening up with Fools Gonna Fly off the newest album, “Number Seven,” before going into Long Gone and Secondhand Heart to give the crowd a taste of what the night will behold. Playing for close to 2 hours and with tons of energy, Will’s music is a bit of rock, country, folk, blues and just pure raw emotions mixed together.
Playing songs like, Baby Girl that had the crowd singing along before going on the keyboards to play When I Can Afford to Lose which has you swaying along with each note before going into his harmonica solo. Songs like, Let Me Lonely and Dirty Little War, one of my favorite songs, scream out the pains of broken hearts and relationships in ways very few artist can share or explore and looking into the crowd as he sings about these pains, you see tears falling and couples holding on a little tighter to each other. As to take the crowd over the emotional rollercoaster, he played Goodnight Goodbye and all I can say is if you have never heard this song, do yourself a favor and find it on YouTube. Things picked up a little with an electric version of Even If It Breaks Your Heart by the time the crowd was his and they were singing along so loud that he stepped back to let them and just smiled.
Tonight was also Guitarist, Adam Ollendorff’s birthday and Will came out with a cake to sing Happy Birthday and let the crowd know they can all have a piece after. At this point, the Double Door was more like a family reunion with everyone singing, laughing, crying and vibing off Mr. Hoge as he tore in to the bluesy song, When I Get my Wings that would have made Muddy Waters proud.
Bass Player, Adam Beard and drummer, Sigurdur Birkis provide a solid back beat; I even had an older man who was a Neighbor of Birkis come up to me saying how proud he was of Birkis.
The night ended with Silver Chain, Pocket Full of Change, and Highways Home, where the whole band went out into the crowd and stood on top of the bar to sing - was a great way to end the night and a great way to know you can still find some amazing music out there and artists like Will Hoge, so do yourself a favor, when Will plays in your town, go see him because I can guarantee it will be one of the best nights of live music you will ever have.
All Photos Provided by Peter Lizano
