ZOX reunion concert with The Sugar Honey Iced Tea and Neo Nouveau!
A little after 5:30p, the doors to Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel opened, and excited people started crowding up against the barrier by the stage. I left the BRU Crew to walk around and see what the audience was up to. As I was walking, I noticed that...
When The S.H.I.T. started their 3rd song “Can’t Stop,” the audience went silent to listen to their beautifully harmonizing voices. And I can say first hand, their acapella game is strong. In-between songs, the band members interacted with the audience quite a bit, joked around and had fun. Towards the end, the girls killed it with their cover of “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road.”
These 4 young women rocked the stage with their guitars and banjoleles. 4 women whose logo happens to be a very cute dinosaur… I think it’s safe to say that they were the SHIT.
Neo Nouveau hit the stage next. The Sugar Honey Iced Tea’s smooth tunes had left their place to energetic rock riffs. We really got in the feel of a rock concert as Titus jammed on the guitar for his solo during “Don’t Say I’m Drinking Wine.”
Every song was even better than the last with Neo Nouveau, and soon the whole audience was jumping up and down to the music. Even a toddler on his dad’s shoulders was jamming to the awesome beats. (According to his mom it was his first concert!) After getting us all to clap along to “The First Rule,” Neo Nouveau played two more songs, and left the audience to impatiently wait for ZOX.
The smoke that emerged during the ZOX set-up got everybody excited. But not as excited as when the vocalist Eli came up on stage to tape down his guitar pedals. As he was setting up he had a casual chat with people from the front of the audience. Around 8p, the audience started chanting “ZOX,” and before you knew it the band was up on stage rocking out to their first song, “Can’t Look Down.”
For their 5th song of the night “I’m On Fire,” Zox was joined by The Sugar Honey Iced Tea, which was a pleasant surprise. 
After some more songs of jumping and dancing, and Eli making the audience go crazy by putting his foot on the barrier, it was time for an epic cover of The Police’s “Walking on the Moon.” Eli started talking about this fan -Justin- he had talked to, who had given him an old setlist from a concert that was years ago. As he was talking he saw Justin in the audience and called him out! Spencer took on the vocals with this one and showed us that not only was he an awesome violinist, but also an amazing singer.
One of the highlights of the night was during “The Squid,” when a member of the audience wearing a squid hat got up on stage and started dancing all around. Towards the end of the song, he did a stage dive and crowd surfed for awhile, still wearing the hat. During “Goodnight,” all of the band members changed instruments and started jamming on stage. It almost felt like we were all jamming together. After playing their hit song “Little More Time,” Zox left the stage but were followed by instant chants of an encore. The band didn’t keep us waiting too long, and soon Eli was on stage playing the intro chords to “Eventually.” He announced that the bassist Dan (who my coworker and I decided looks like Howard Wolowitz from the Big Bang Theory) was getting married the next day! The encore continued with “Starry Night,” for which both Neo Nouveau and The Sugar Honey Iced Tea came back on stage. Again, it felt like we were all just hanging out and having fun together. ZOX did their usual ending with “Canon.”
Just as we were expecting the concert to be over, Spencer walked up to the microphone and said “One more?” The audience answered with a very loud “YEAAAH!” Then the familiar first few notes of “Where Is My Mind” by the Pixies resonated in the venue. Everybody started singing along immediately. A great ending to a great night.
Feel free to browse through the rest of the photos of the night here: Courtesy of WBRU Staff Photographer Lauren Galvan