LIVE REVIEW: Still Woozy at the Sylvee

by Michael Tallon

Still Woozy performed at the Sylvee on February 20, 2022. Still Woozy is an extremely interesting artist, growing up in California, and emerging into the fairly new musical genre, dream pop. Most of his songs exist in a spacey, almost dream-like atmosphere that makes for subtle, yet extremely powerful melodies and beats. To add onto this ideal feeling, the weather was perfect for the concert. It was the warmest it had been since November, and the energy this added to the crowd was tangible. It had been a fairly cold winter, and a warm weekend was exactly what the city of Madison needed for a great concert.

Photo courtesy of Shatter Imagery / The Sylvee

The opener was a smaller indie-rock act named Wallice. While not bringing the pumping bass hits and energy that the main act provided, the set played by Wallice had a variety of interesting and engaging guitar riffs, even covering the famous ‘Heart Shaped Box’ by Nirvana. The songs really reminded me of some of the other more well known indie acts like Soccer Mommy, or Spill Tab, in the best ways possible. It was not nearly as energetic of an opener as it could’ve been, but I think the contrast really helped make the explosive entrance that Still Woozy had all the more impressive.

Because Still Woozy has only released one album, we got pretty much all the hits in the setlist. He came on stage with his massive song ‘Windows’ from said album. The energy in the crowd was electric, only fueled on by the amazing amount of liveliness that Still Woozy, and the guitarist, Tanya, brought with them. They owned the stage, running and dancing around it, providing the perfect feelings to the audience. The crowd was very excited, and audibly so. We got song after song, hit after hit of absolutely perfect dance music. Throughout all of the heavy bass and electronic sounds, though, we got a few more intimate and acoustic songs that served as a nice break and contrast to the excitement of the show. The night came to a close with a fake out on the ending of the show, into Still Woozy’s biggest song to date, ‘Goodie Bag’. The feeling in the room was as good as it had been all night, and as the show ended, it became obvious how great of a show this really was.