If you’re looking for a dose of serotonin, a Hippo Campus concert is the place to find it. The indie pop band’s cult following packed the Eastern on Jan. 29, turning a run-of-the-mill Wednesday night into something of a family reunion, unifying fans, new and old, with the music that connects them all.
The band is fresh off the release of their fourth studio album, “Flood,” which dropped last September. The record develops the characteristic Hippo Campus sound even further, taking their lyrics deeper and exposing a vulnerable and grounded side to the group that was missing in their previous releases. Rather than being an album that you can obsessively tear through, “Flood” is more so something that you carry around in your back pocket, revisiting and rediscovering hidden stories and clever lyrics over time.
Hippo Campus famously took a while to release the new album, spending about two years writing and scrapping nearly 100 songs. During that time, they went through lots of personal growth together as a band, and they eventually recorded the final version of “Flood” which vocalist Jake Luppen described to Billboard saying, “[The album] is like being naked in a lit room with a mirror held up to you, and being like, ‘Embrace this.’ It’s a testament to all the things we need to be doing to take care of ourselves and live better.”
Needless to say, fans were thrilled to see the band’s new songs live, excitedly chattering away as they filed into the Eastern’s wide, theater-like space. As opener Mei Semones took to the stage, the crowd’s voices came to an abrupt halt, and Semones swiftly filled the silence with her indie-infused J-pop. A relative newcomer in the music scene, she has quickly found her sound, toggling her lyrics between Japanese and English and incorporating an almost Laufey-esque jazz influence in her delivery. As she noted a few times during the set, her debut album is set to release this summer.
Following Semones’s performance, Hippo Campus arrived as four silhouettes and began their show, glowing under the back-lit, colorful LEDs. From the guy in the front row yelling every lyric to the two girls in the middle of the pit swinging each other around, it was hard to find a place in the venue where concertgoers weren’t having the time of their lives. The band played off of their energy, pointing to their most passionate fans across the barricade.
They performed a harmonious blend of both new and old songs from their discography, catering to the appetite of any level of fan. The show’s most powerful moment was their performance of “South.” The song’s transcendent, self-empowering message to carry on through hardships reverberated between the walls of the venue, and the crowd echoed every word back to the band. During the song’s bridge, guitarist/vocalist Nathan Stocker turned his mic stand around to let the crowd take control, and they repeated together, “You go down south, south // You go down south.”
One of the quintessential characteristics of a Hippo Campus show is Luppen’s use of hard autotune during some songs, most notably in the band’s most streamed track “Buttercup.” However, for them, it’s not so much a vocal crutch as it is an artistic choice to give their set a change of pace. It remains a controversial topic amongst the band’s fans who argue whether or not it is necessary or distracting; however, it undeniably is a part of the band’s live sound and what sets them apart from other groups.
After electric performances of songs like “Suicide Saturday” and “baseball,” the band encored “Way It Goes” and closed the show, thanking Atlanta and the concertgoers for contributing to the fantastic night. The audience filed out of the venue soon after, with music echoing in their hearts and smiles etched on their faces.
Catch Hippo Campus on their “Flood” tour this spring, and listen to their newest album on all streaming platforms. More info can be found at hippocampus.band.