On April 22, Sweet Pill and Pinkshift opened up for Origami Angel at the Rec Room in Buffalo, New York. This sold out show marked one of the first days of the “Origami Angel” headlining tour, on tour in the states from April 20 to May 20. All three bands had amazing performances, with the crowd excited, jumping and singing along from the very first Sweet Pill song until the end of Origami Angel.
Opening up the night was Philadelphia (and New Jersey) based band Sweet Pill. Their album Where the Heart Is released on May 25, 2022 via Topshelf Records put the band on the map. Recently celebrating the one year anniversary of the album, the band also released a music video for the track “Dog Song.” The band explained that the video is special to them because it features all of their fur babies along with the pets of close friends and fans.
On May 25, 2023, the band shared “we knew we had something special in our hands, but we did not understand the magnitude of how this record would change our lives…”
During their Buffalo performance, the energy was nonstop. So many fans in the crowd knew the lyrics to their songs, even further proving the impact of their album.
Sweet Pill is fully immersed in their local scene as well. If you’re looking to dive even further to Sweet Pill, check out some of their notable side projects including twentythreenineteen, Goings, and Hard Assist.
Their performance is one I won’t forget and I hope it won’t be long before I am able to see them again.
Sweet Pill
Baltimore’s Pinkshift was the second performance of the night. It was different and something that has never been seen before from the band. They called it “nightcore.”
Just a week before the start of the tour, they released a single called “to me” via Hopeless
Records. This single release followed the release of their debut album Love Me Forever, also released via Hopeless. About the single, lead singer Ashrita Kumar notes, “Love is a powerful form of energy that is not just given or taken, but flows endlessly and connects us all. ‘To me’ speaks to the indestructibility of such an energy, and what it feels like to hold love close to your heart and with those around you. It is a realization that despite everything that is difficult, to be truly loved is to love ourselves.”
The Pinkshift performance in Buffalo was different yet still intriguing and full of energy. Ashrita was having issues with their voice, which meant a vocal rest for them. The band improvised well by moving forward with an instrumental version accompanied with some vocal backing tracks.
It was very obvious that the crowd was ecstatic the band moved forward with the performance instead of canceling. Fans were happy and even singing along.
One of the that Ash has on the tour to use is a bell. As described in a note on their merch table their bell is “forged from multiple metals with a wooden ringer. It is a healing sound similar to singing bowls.”
Throughout their performance, they also had typed up voice memos, which were played from Ashrita’s phone next to a microphone so the whole room could hear.
To end off the night even stronger than ever, the lead singer of Sweet Pill joined Pinkshift on stage for guest vocals during the performance of the song “i’m gonna tell my therapist on you.”
Both Sweet Pill and Pinkshift have had an incredible impact on the scene in the past year and I cannot wait to see what they have planned for the future.
Pinkshift
To end the night was Washington, D.C. based duo that mixes a variety of genres, including pop-punk and fifth-wave emo. This headlining tour follows up the tour that they completed last fall with Pool Kids and Insignificant Other, another amazing three band tour that traveled across the United States.
Throughout the night, the duo shared stories about previous tours and hopes for what is to come in the future. They were talkative the whole night, which at points felt like a lot to take in but it was personal and a good break between their songs.
The next Origami Angel release comes out June 16 titled The Brightest Days and it features their most recent single “My PG Country Summer.”
Though the tour has finished, there will still be plenty of chances to see these bands throughout 2023, I’m sure. Origami Angel will be performing three hometown shows in Washington, D.C. in July and Pinkshift has “touring in 2023” in their Instagram bio – only meaning there are more shows from the band to come soon.
