Finneas O’ Connell, who performs under the name FINNEAS, brought his “Blood Harmony” tour to Chicago this past Sunday for a sold out show at Thalia Hall. The crowd was filled with excited and dedicated fans who spent hours camping out before the show.
FINNEAS holds many creative titles including singer, songwriter, percussionist and producer. Songwriting and producing for his sister, Billie Eilish, is what initially caught a lot of our attention. While continuing to work and tour with her, FINNEAS released eight singles throughout 2018. With this being his first tour as a headlining artist in promotion for his debut EP it has been a huge success thus far.
The night started off with opening act, Lauren Sanderson hitting the stage. A midwest native with a genuine love for performing that came through as soon as her set started. Sanderson has released a wide variety of music, mainly hip-hop with hints of r&b. During the show she performed songs from both her latest release, and two from her upcoming album which is expected in January.
The story of how Sanderson became the opening act for the tour was told and it was quite a quick and funny interaction that happened through Instagram DM’s. She also gave a speech about staying true to who you are without worrying about any outside factors and not giving up on your dreams. That empowering message was the last thing she left with the audience before jumping into the crowd to show her fans some love to bring her set to a close.
Sanderson’s performance left a positive impact on the audience as she was at the center of a lot of the conversation going on while waiting for FINNEAS.
As the lights went down once more, FINNEAS walked on stage through a frame of lights and sat right down at his keyboard. Throughout the show finneas mentioned the familiar concept of home many times. While the entire audience was full of strangers experiencing this unique moment that will never happen the same way again there were many aspects of Finneas’ performance that made it feel homey. Finneas did not have a band on stage, instead he alternated between playing the keyboard and the guitar himself.
The hall danced and cried together as Finneas’ music touches on happiness, love, loss and everything in between. He was able to grab the attention of everyone in the room, because of his talent and also because of the type of engaged fans he has. People were singing along to every single lyric; and sometimes made their own by using the breaks between verses to scream “period.” Finneas even joined in on the fun singing “You’re an angel in my arms, Period.” .
Finneas also concluded his set with an important message to fans. He says don't dwell on the past or the future and just be thankful for the now “because we’re all gonna be dead.”
