Indie rock band Walk the Moon played a crowd-pleasing show in Hewitt Union Ballroom on Saturday, Sep. 21. Led by vocalist Nicholas Petricca, the Cincinnati quartet, which formed and began writing music and performing shortly after graduating college, brought a mix of indie pop and rock to Oswego State for SAPB’s fall concert.

In the past few years, Walk the Moon opened up for big bands like Panic! At The Disco and Weezer. Now, the band is on its own tour, which drummer Sean Waugaman said took getting used to.

“It’s a little surreal,” Waugaman said, “because a lot of these rooms we’ve played with those big bands are [saying] ‘I’ve done this show before.’ But it’s now our crowd. It’s like a weird hasn’t-really-sunk-in kind of feeling.”

“It’s also a lot more pressure because when we’re the opener we don’t have to worry about selling tickets, it’s not our show,” Petricca added. “We just have to go up there and fight for our lives. But now it’s like we actually have to fill the seats with our people. So when we do, it’s a big accomplishment for us.”

When asked who some of their influences were, Petricca listed band ranging from The Talking Heads and David Bowie to Local Natives, The Killers and Mike Snow.

With all these different influences, their sound was more than just indie-rock infusing pop and techno instrumentation to create up-beat music that was danceable and exciting to be a part of.

“As a smaller band, you’re playing a lot more shows,” bassist Kevin Ray said. “[We] gravitated to more energetic music. We wanted to be crowd pleasers, not just sell records. So a lot of stuff is upbeat because we feed off the energy of the people in the room and it’s fun to dance.”

Petricca said there is a message they are trying to send: “Have courage, be positive, be brave and be yourself.”

With rain in the forecast Saturday, the show, originally planned to take place in front of Campus Center, was moved into Hewitt. Students were informed of the move Friday afternoon through an email sent by the school. Doors were supposed to open at 6:30 p.m. but didn’t actually open until a little after 7 pm. When doors did open, about half of the ballroom was filled. This was, concert-goers said, completely unexpected.

“I was really impressed,” Peter Hanley, a junior, said. “I wasn’t expecting a lot of people to come but there were quite a few people there. I was stoked.”

The concert itself didn’t start until around 8:30 p.m. so the anticipation was felt throughout the room.

“They were late so the anticipation kind of built,” freshman Sarah Hutchinson said, “but when they came on, the energy was just massive.”

The show was interesting, to say the least. The band used effective lighting and effects that gave the show a rave-like vibe.

There was a good amount of people who didn’t really know their music.

“ A fair amount of people didn’t necessarily know all the songs or any of them. I know I didn’t,” junior Catherine Torletino said. After the show was over, Torletino said, “I’m going to go download their music tonight.”

The band’s performance as a whole was fulfilling. The band managed to sound the same on their record as they did live and kept the crowd actively involved.

As for the future, Walk The Moon will begin working on a new album after completing their tour.

“The future is the next record. When we get back from tour we will be going into the studio,” Petricca said.