Worth Our While @ Sonar

Oh, baby. Literally. Not only did Worth Our While start off with a cover of the Justin Bieber hit, but they did it as cutely and coolly as their baby-faced rock-starness allowed them.

After hyping up the crowd with the cover, WOW went into their original songs. Their set list included a song about a liar; and “Pinch Me,” a song about all the good things that had been happening to them (which I will say was my favorite song of their set). Lead singer, Jonathan Brennan, admitted that they were not well-prepared (which would probably explain the confusion over the time allotted to the band’s performance and whether or not they were, in fact, almost done. But even with their supposed lack of preparation, it was not only expected (they’re clearly still teenage boys), but rather unnoticed. Yea, guitarist Chandler Pierce was barely audible when doing backup vocals for Jonathan; and so what if the boys were whispering to each other in the middle of the set. It was clear that these dudes are rock stars in the making with Jonathan’s Alex Gaskarth-esque face and engaging James Maslow (Big Time Rush)/Brandon Ellis (Rocky Loves Emily) voice; Tim Wilcox’s (bassist) and Chandler’s killer supportiveness in the stringed-talent department, and Mike DeMarco (drummer) being a beast on the drums. The band could easily be targeted to the tween-age group because of their innocent lyrics, but their rather mature instrumental skills put them in a whole other league. Granted, they’re not Il Divo–their voices aren’t angelic and operatic, but that’s a good thing. The vocals are actually raw and real like a genuine, hard-working musician’s voice should be. Plus, considering what other more popular teen stars sound like (cough, cough: Rebecca Black), WOW actually sounds…normal. No outlandish dance moves, no flashy outfits, not even an epic laser light show that explodes into a ten-minute guitar solo (yes, I have seen that happen). And even without all these showy details, the show was still good. Their songs and talent were powerful enough to hold the crowd for the whole forty-five minutes.  Personally, I thought the boys did quite all right–they played well, kept the crowd entertained, and even gave the audience a nice sneak peak of songs to come.

This Maryland-based band is competing in the battle of the Bands this year and is trying to win a spot at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. You can vote for them here.
Find them on Facebook!
Follow them on Twitter!