It might be a cloudy rainy day in Amsterdam this Tuesday in October, but The Driver Era brought their summer vibes to the AFAS Live to brighten the city up for a night. The X Girlfriend tour, named after their first two records, also brings along the bands Your Favorite Color and almost monday as support acts, to really drive the summer theme home for the evening. They are excellent picks to get the crowd in the right carefree mood, fitting really well both musically and aesthetically. I’m sure a big part of the crowd will find their way to the just announced almost monday tour as well.
With the temperatures already slowly rising and the crowd thoroughly warmed up from the two earlier bands, you can actually feel the excitement and tension grow when it’s almost time for The Driver Era to come to the stage. This comes to a head when they announce a couple of members of the crowd have the opportunity to win a meet & greet with Ross and Rocky Lynch after the show, earning them the first screams of the night.
The crowd has to hold their breath for a little while longer after this, as the band is hidden behind a blank canvas, making us only see their silhouettes for the first song. It’s the start of the story for tonight, where you’re taken on a late summer roadtrip. It’s the mystery of not knowing where the road leads, starting something new with a person you’re unfamiliar with, which is half the fun of any journey. When the curtain drops, we see a band that’s just as excited to see us as we are to see them. They express their love for the city, having a couple of days to spend in Amsterdam. With the relaxed attitudes of both the city and The Driver Era, they are clearly a perfect fit, showing in the way the band moves around the stage as well.
After a couple of songs, we go down a nostalgic memory lane when they’re experiencing technical difficulties, with a cappella covers of Billie Eilish’s ‘Birds Of A Feather’, Chappell Roan’s ‘Casual’ and, to the surprise of many, title song ‘Can’t Do It Without You’ of Austin & Ally (the TV show Ross Lynch was a part of). It might’ve been a somewhat unplanned detour, but what’s a summer road trip without one. With the crowd singing along with Ross as loud as they could, this will become one of core memories of the night.
Once we’re back on track, we go through melancholic tropical rainstorms before starting ‘Fantasy’ and the laid-back beach vibes of ‘Malibu’. The summer night needs to end eventually, but doing it with the carefree ‘A Kiss’, everyone gets to leave cheerful and happy, because we got to spend so much time together on this short summer vacation. If you just see The Driver Era as a band for girls who gush over either Ross or Rocky Lynch, you’re missing out on the musical stories they’re telling on a night like this. Luckily, you can still see and hear them tour through Europe until the end of the month, or find them on their Obsession world tour next year.
GALLERY: The Driver Era at AFAS Live in Amsterdam (October 8, 2024)
