Red Wanting Blue closed out the 2018 concert season at The Goodyear Theater on Saturday night.  The Columbus based band has a large following in Northeastern Ohio and many fans showed up to dance and sing along with the group.  

 

Last year, the band played a New Years Eve show at the same venue.  This year, the New Years party came a few days early but still had all of the marking of a New Years celebration including a big balloon drop and confetti cannons.  They are really a fun band to see live.

 

The band is out supporting their latest release The Wanting, which was produced by Will Hoge.  Hoge, a Tennessee native, made the drive up to Akron to play this special one-off show.

 

Hoge usually has a band behind him when performing, but this was a special solo acoustic performance.  

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Hoge is out supporting his latest album My American Dream which includes, “Still A Southern Man” a song about the relevance of the Confederate flag, “Thoughts and Prayers” which is about gun control and the self-explanatory “Nikki’s A Republican Now.”  All of those songs were played live and got a positive response from the crowd.

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I get it, you go to a show with your friends and you want to have a good time. However, if you would rather talk to your buddies while someone is on stage performing, please take it to the lobby and let others enjoy the show.  It would have been nice to hear Hoge's thought provoking lyrics without straining to hear over other peoples conversations.

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Opening the show was Youngstown’s own The Building.  Led by Anthony LaMarca, who is also a member of the Grammy winning group War On Drugs, the band played a very interesting set of tunes.

 

It was an overall excellent way to end 2018.  

 

Let’s hope 2019 brings us as many exciting shows as this past year.

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Review and photos by Greg Drugan