GAYNGS : the last prom on earth (in chicago).

Decked out in white suit jackets, plastic shades, hoodies, matching beards and even a raccoon skin cap, GAYNGS initiated the windy city Thursday evening with their debut Chicago performance at the Metro. What the venue lacked in attendees, (it was shockingly far from sold out), the Midwestern indie super group made up for with their swagger and incredible loverboy stage presence. With a line-up more impressive than Pitchfork Music Festival, GAYNGS’ rotating roster includes members of Bon Iver, Megafaun, The Rosebuds, Doomtree, Solid Gold, Andrew Bird and more. So while it was no surprise that all 25 members couldn’t rep on stage, POS and Dessa of hip hop collaborative Doomtree and Grant Cutler and Maggie Morrison of the recently defunct electro pop outfit Lookbook were disappointingly noticeably absent.


Taking the stage around the ten o clock mark, the whitest dudes responsible for the biggest influx of hipster baby making wasted no time in getting down to business. Kicking things off with Relayted’s sexy beat-box opener “The Gaudy Side of Town,” it became clear the night was going to be one for the books. The ten man crew transported the crowd into a sexy surreal world of 80’s electro synth throwback make-out jams that would have made even George Michael jealous. Blue, fuchsia and golden hues illuminated the bedroom party ambience, and it was unclear if it was Justin Vernon and Co. or the crowd who were enjoying themselves more. With all the swaying, finger pointing, gayng sign throwing and lazy smiles being tossed around, everyone in the building was helpless to the seductive hypnosis that seeped from the indie R&B jams. While the entire track list of Relayted was accounted for, joints like “Faded High,” “Spanish Platinum” and “The Last Prom on Earth” really stood out.

While the autotune was on the brink of ‘ok dudes, that’s enough,’ the ever charismatic Vernon (you guys, he had his prescription glasses on under plastic red sunglasses, a polo cardigan and a raccoon tail hat and still pulled it off – how much more stinkin’ adorable can you get??) managed to pull it off with his Wrigley Field cracks and never ending grin. The sound quality of Ivan Howard and Mike Noyce’s vocals was dead on and the overall instrumentation was pretty fantastic considering all the sounds erupting from such a small platform. Closing off the night was the encore cover of The Alan Parsons Project “Eye in the Sky, a fantastically intimate and melodic jam that had the entire crowd swaying in unison. It was the perfect one night stand, full of dancing, hot passion and zero regrets.