After being kicked out of their concert during the opener last year (don’t ask), I’ve been anxiously waiting to see flipturn—one of my favorite bands—play live. After months of anticipation, I watched flipturn walk onto the Basement East stage after opener Hotel Fiction—hilariously, the same venue and opener as last year—for a performance I will never forget. 

Although they only have around 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, Hotel Fiction performs at such a quality that they should have millions of fans. After their impressive performance, they left the stage for flipturn, and out came frontman Dillon Basse, bassist Madeline Jarman, guitarist Tristan Duncan, synth player Mitch Fountain and drummer Devon VonBalson.

What I’ve always liked most about flipturn’s discography is the voice of main man Dillon Basse, which shines through on stage as much as it does in studio recordings. Basse has impressive range, with the ability both to belt out a song’s chorus and carry the rest of the song with what I can only describe as the most tender of vocals. His energetic stage presence and Mac DeMarco-esque vibe make him the perfect indie frontman—whatever indie means anyway.

The band mostly played songs from their new album, “Shadowglow,” which marks their first full-length release. They played “Brooklyn Baby” and “Halfway”—my favorites from the album—as well as a few songs I shamefully did not know the lyrics to (yet) but still got my head bopping along nonetheless.

In addition to their newer releases, flipturn played classics that listeners know and love. The entire Basement East crowd sang along to bangers such as “Nickel,” “Chicago” and “August,” and even though I was a tiny bit annoyed the band did not play “Churches” or “Something You Needed” (my personal flipturn favorites), I was thoroughly entertained by the crowd participation.

I imagine that, even if I wasn’t already utterly obsessed with flipturn, I would become a superfan after this concert due to the band’s immense on-stage energy. It is obvious that the fivesome clearly loves what they’re doing and shows it through their energetic performances. This mindset is exemplified by drummer VonBalson, who killed it on the drums all night long.

It’s no surprise I enjoyed flipturn’s performance—they made it onto my Spotify Wrapped top five artists, after all—but my love for them definitely grew even more after seeing them crush it just a few feet in front of me. I’m happy I found flipturn at such a pivotal stage of their career, and I’m looking forward to watching them keep growing.