Wild Rivers and Whitacre dropped by the M-Shop on Wednesday night as the latest stop on their tour with Paper Kites, giving attendees an enjoyable and needed break from college midterms.

Opening for Wild Rivers, the show started with Whitacre, who performed as a trio instead of the usual five-piece band. Lead singer Paul Whitacre said the rest of the band was in Nebraska and would be meeting up with the three later in the tour.

“You may notice that we’re a little short tonight,” Whitacre said. “This will be the first time we’ll be playing as a three-piece band and we’re kind of excited to find ourselves in this way.”

Whitacre kicked the show off with “Set Me Free,” the very first song the band had written together. The band is a young one, debuting only a year ago and writing songs together for only the past 6 to 8 months. The M-Shop was also part of their EP release tour where they played their new songs as an introduction to their first ever EP.

Their songs garnered positive reactions from the crowd with their high energy and mostly upbeat setlist. Whitacre ended their segment by keeping the energy up with “Prodigal” which featured a closing sample of the popular hymn “I’ll Fly Away,” resulting in large applause and cheers from the audience.

After a short intermission, Wild Rivers took to the stage with “Already Gone,” a hit song off of the band’s self-titled album. Main vocalists Devan Glover and Khalid Yassein immediately captured the room’s attention with their harmonies and delivered their first songs with much passion and energy, all while keeping the vocal balance between them. After a few high energy tracks, they slowed the tempo down.

“That’s it for the fun ones tonight folks,” Yassein said. “It’s a school night after all and you’re here to see a folk band. What did you think this was?”

The band continued to play a mixture of songs from their entire discography, old and new songs alike. While introducing “Paul Simon,” a song about leaving home, Yassein said the band’s interest in the difference between college life in the U.S. and Canada, where they are from.

“We’re a long way from home,” Yassein said. “We don’t have a college culture like this in Canada, with all the football and frats, so we’re fascinated. … You know, we went exploring today. Got hazed by a Gamma Theta something, got hit in the head with a football.”

Another highlight of the night from the audience’s perspective was the inspiration behind one of Wild River’s older songs, “Mayday.” Yassein credits his best friend for the inspiration and lyrics, telling a story about how he handled his best friend’s constant texts about a bad breakup. 

“You know what?” Yassein said. “I copied and pasted a lot of his texts right into the song. Don’t send me that intimate shit if you don’t want it bastardized in indie folk music forever. Thanks Kevin!”

After slowing down, the band started to pick up the room’s energy with “Speak Too Soon.” Guitar and bass player Andrew Oliver sang along this time while Glover traded her guitar in for a tambourine, which she seemed to enjoy and played in a very spirited way. The liveliness continued throughout the rest of the show as they went through the setlist, which ended with “I Won’t Be Back” a popular single off of their new album “Eighty-Eight.”

The show didn’t quite end there, as the band stepped into the crowd for an encore. The band stood in a circle in the middle of the room as the public gathered around them for an acoustic rendition of their well-known single, “Howling.” The new setting featured all of the members voices and highlighted their tight harmonies and strong musicality.

The end of the show called back to something Yassein had said earlier in the night while poking fun at the American College experience.

“Ok guys, we’re pledging after tonight. ‘Who’s in?'” Yassein said. “Let’s all form a new frat and we’ll just sing songs. That’s all we’ll do.”