Hip-hop folk artist Raury showed off impressive vocals and dance moves Wednesday night as he headlined the final Bandersnatch concert of the fall semester in the Schine Underground. 17-year-old Demo Taped opened for the sold-out crowd. Here are five fast reactions to University Union’s latest show:

Demo Taped struggles through technical difficulties

Despite a strong start to his set, Demo Taped ran into some serious sound issues throughout his set; the volume kept fluctuating from deafening highs to inaudible lows through his most popular songs including “I Luv U” and “Game On.” The crowd’s vibe died down so much through these issues that by the time they were finally resolved, the young artist had a difficult time reeling them back in. The artist is just 17 years old and clearly has a long way to go when it comes to figuring out small issues like sound mixing complications. The artist has raw talent and it showed through the difficulties, but the performance just wasn’t enough to excite the Schine Underground crowd very much.

University Union plays strong pre-act music

This is a pretty minor compliment, but credit is due to the people at University Union that organized the pre-act playlists before both Demo Taped and Raury came out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an audience as excited about a warm up song as when “Hotline Bling” came on shortly before Raury’s set began.

Raury displays overall musicianship

Not only was Raury accompanied during his whole show by a guitarist, bassist and drummer, but the artist even picked up a guitar of his own for a hard-rock rendition of “Cigarette Song.” Regardless of what you think about artists or bands that play entire concerts without instruments, I think there’s still huge value in artists that play their instruments live. Seeing an artist like Raury unexpectedly grabbing a guitar for himself was a welcome addition to a strong set.

Raury shows-off his rock star moves

Raury might still be a little far from full-on “rock star” status at this point in his career, but he has his moves for the role down already. He mixed things up throughout the course of his show, featuring impressive spin moves, jumping on the crowd barrier to high-five the crowd and mic stand flips. On some songs he cued the audience to follow his lead by clapping, stomping, and waving in the air. His fans happily obliged.

Raury wants you to know you can do anything (and he loves you)

In between songs, Raury would often give the audience motivational advice — one of my favorite lines was “young doesn’t mean you can’t get sh*t done.” “Whether you’re a gardener, if you’re a photographer, whatever you are,” the artist said he didn’t care who his audience is, but told them, “just do what I do.”

Brett Weiser-Schlesinger is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major. He can be reached by email at bweisers@syr.edu or by Twitter at @brettws.

Published on November 4, 2015 at 11:31 pm