CREDIT: BROOK IDEN
Scott Helman and The Kents kept Fanshawe on their feet on Jan 12th with awe-inspiring performances.

What usually is a quiet night at Fanshawe was transformed into a lively one when The Kents and Scott Helman entered the building Thursday, Jan 12 for an 8 p.m. performance. This was both Scott Helman and The Kents’ first time performing at Fanshawe who both said they were excited for the show.

The preshow was kicked off with a bang with the indie-pop band The Kents, which was formed when the group of four friends were in high school. They started the night with one of their most recent and favourite song to perform “Distant” that has yet to be released. They also played more of their popular songs from their EP including “The Stakes” and “Something About Her”.

“Lyrically our priority is always just that a song is honest and I think honesty and being earnest is what people connect to… as long as you are being true to what you’ve experienced, what you feel and what you’re passionate about,” Warren Frank, vocalist for The Kents, said.

Credit: BROOK IDEN

The audience welcomed The Kents with cheers and followed directions of the band when they were encouraged to participate in singing and clapping. The band felt especially grateful that they were able to perform before Helman.

“He’s done very well this year. It’s an honour. We want to be opening for well known artists and Scott’s definitely one of them so it’s a good feeling,” said Freddy Kwon, guitarist of The Kents.

The audience was especially eager for Scott Helman to take the stage.

Annette Dawm, a recent graduate from the office administration program at Fanshawe, said that she enjoyed going to concerts when she was a student so much so that she still comes back.

“It’s something to do and you’re not going to get to a concert this close at such a low price. I think it’s good for the students to have activities like this to break up their studies,” Dawm said.

Scott opened his show with “Tikka” backed up by a four-piece band. The upbeat song along with his presence on stage created a positive and exciting energy that was palpable throughout the room.

“Colleges are always very fun. Sound wise it’s obviously different because it’s a little bit more condensed, but energy wise I find college shows are good just because people really like to have a good time…especially when it’s young people. What could be better?” Helman said.

Credit: BROOK IDEN

The Juno-nominated artist sang some of his other songs from his EP album Augusta such as “Cry Cry Cry”, “Lion” and “Machine” all of which he introduced and provided the background story behind.

“I find that ‘Machine’ is usually my favourite to play because everybody sings along…when I wrote that song…it connected to me the most and I knew it would connect to people the most. When I play it live I really feel like the audience is with me and we’re together,” Helman said.

His song “Bungalow” that was released in 2014 was a huge and, at the time, unexpected success for Scott.

“When I wrote it I knew it was a good song. I was like this is definitely awesome and it was very palpable for radio but I never had that kind of success before so I didn’t really know what it looked like and I didn’t know how it was achieved,” Helman said.

Scott also covered Johnny Cash and Lukas Graham’s “7 Years” before he finished his performance with his most popular and well-known song “Bungalow” that had the audience screaming for an encore.

Scott said that he will be releasing new music soon; however, the date has yet to be announced.

Credit: BROOK IDEN