If you happened to feel a beam of warm sunshine on Tuesday October 29th at 9:00pm, it probably came from Downtown Indy’s Old National Centre. Thee Sacred Souls blessed The Murat Egyptian Room on Tuesday night with their warm soulful performance, featuring their opening act, Thee Heart Tones.
I had never heard of the opener before Tuesday morning, so I was going in blind. As an anxious person – this was not good for me, but it sure paid off. I walked into the venue about halfway through their set and was astounded by the lead singer’s voice. Learning that all members of the band are 21 years old or younger, I am even more astonished by their musical ability. The Chicano Soul group beautifully fits in your indie pop/coffee shop playlist. If you are a listener of Clairo, Steve Lacy, and Thee Sacred Souls – this band is their love child. The building of each song reminds me very much of a Bedroom/Lofi alternative style, like Clairo, Shelly, and TV Girl. My favorite thing about this kind of style is that every single instrument, you can hear and if the track doesn’t have it – the song isn’t complete. This band follows this template very well. The guitarist and bass player had perfect chemistry while performing. Their style also has a beautiful mix of Steve Lacy and Mac Demarco tones sprinkled in there. The band is only averaging about 35,000 monthly listeners according to spotify – But I see as this tour goes on, the number will increase, as well as their musical ability. They are a young group and are already in a perfect place for growth, especially in their genre.
Thee Sacred Souls came onto stage in a beautiful fashion – reminding me of David Byrne and The Talking Heads Stop Making Sense concert film. Bits and pieces of the band waltzed onto stage at different times of their funky instrumental stage intro. Lead Singer Josh Lane came onto stage starting the night off with “Lucid Girl” from their most recent album Got a Story to Tell, which came out on Oct. 4th of this year.
Thee Sacred Souls round their average monthly listeners out at 6.5 million, with their most streamed track being “Can I Call You Rose?” Much like other artists, this song had a stint on TikTo in 2020 after its release, resulting in a current 92.6 streams on Spotify. Runner up to their first single from 2020, their song “Easier Said Than Done” has 81.5 million streams.
Their third most streamed song on Spotify sits at 60 Million streams. Their track “Will I See You Again?” was third on the setlist on Tuesday. While singing this song, Josh Lane threw me and the rest of the photographer for a loop, and jumped down into the photo pit to get closer to fans at the barricade. Lane traveled across the entire barricade while singing – sharing his voice and giving every fan a life-changing closeup experience. This wasn’t the only time Lane was offstage during the performance, I’ll be honest I couldn’t keep track of the guy from the first half of his set. Lane ran around the entire venue while performing the song “Running Away” (fitting, right?) At one point, he climbed up onto the VIP risers and sat with fans for a couple lyrics. As a photographer – this was VERY stressful. But as an enjoyer of live music – this really personalizes the experience of the show and gives some variety.
Thee Sacred Souls has Josh Lane, but Josh Lane is not Thee Sacred Souls. Back up vocalist Viane Escobar and Astyne Turrentine truly made this concert what it was – along with the young group of horn players. You can’t have a live soul performance without backup vocals and – it just isn’t possible. And let me tell you I was not disappointed in the least. These two women brought their powerful voices to the stage and added an incredible amount of personality to each song they performed. I also enjoyed watching them perform with the band for NPR’s iconic Tiny Desk Concert back in February.
I’ve never felt love through sound the way I do when I hear live soul music. Taking a moment to focus on Josh’s talent, he has a real Marvin Gaye sound to him. I’ve never heard soul music that has hooked me so quickly other than Thee Sacred Souls, and Josh Lane’s voice is the reason for that. His silky smooth tone translates perfectly from recording to live performance. His generational voice oozes emotion onto the stage and into the crowd, I have never heard anything like it.
Love was a common theme throughout the entirety of the show. Lane elaborated on some of his songs, informing the audience that music truly is about the human experience, and that in order to exist – you must love. He also used the stage as a platform to spread awareness of the genocide in Gaza, and womens rights.
Josh and the crew brought the evening to a close with a long-awaited encore performance of “Can I Call You Rose?” ending the night off with their biggest hit. This show truly did feel like a warm blanket of the sun was wrapped around you. Not an ounce of hate was in their air, just warm deep breaths of love and prosperity.
Thee Sacred Souls is sharing their San Diego Soul across the country for the last two weeks of their North American tour in cities across the Northeast and Canada.
Written By Ella Absher
Photos BY @absherstudios on Instagram
