Despite a long hiatus, former X-Factor USA band reunites for virtual concert and teases a new mature sound.
If there’s one thing that the pandemic has brought us, it’s closer to our family. Although we might have cabin fever at this point, we’ve inevitably learned a thing or two about those who with whom we live. On June 25, 2020, California-based boy-band Emblem3 embraced this mentality with their first concert in nearly four years. After multiple breakups since they placed fourth on X-Factor U.S.A. in 2012, the boys are back again, teasing their supporters that this time, they might just remain together.
The live-stream opened with brothers Wesley and Keaton alongside best friend Drew laughing amongst each other. For fans of Emblem3, it’s like coming home. Their wide, easygoing smiles can recapture any former fan’s heart, drawing them back into the music that they screamed for hours into a hairbrush from their childhood bedroom. Their then-teenage fans are now well into their twenties, yet they filled the chat feature with digital messages akin to the screams of young fangirls. For some, this is the nostalgic escape that they need to leave the confines of quarantine and be transported back to a packed venue of teenage girls and their reluctant parents.
The passion in the boys’ eyes shined when they performed older songs from their peak in the mainstream. They opened the concert with “Reason,” a song from their 2014 album, Songs From the Couch, Vol.1., which Drew later explained they wrote after being fired from Subway at age eighteen. Wesley’s harmonies may be imperfect, but that’s part of the charm of the band. They’re carefree skateboarder/surfer boys from California who play music for the sake of playing music.
Their freewheeling attitude sustained through the concert, but the band demonstrated a newfound maturity with new songs that they sandwiched between old classics. Unreleased songs like “Lightning in a Bottle” showcased an acoustically rich side to the band that seems far-removed from the pop-reggae of their past. No longer do they rely on four chord electric guitar solos and syncopation to drive their music; their new songs feature unplugged sounds and intricate guitar finger-work. Despite the apparent juxtaposition between these songs and the “California Bro” stereotype in which they have indulged, this move is unsurprising. The effortless directional shift echoes Wesley’s sentiment from an early X-Factor interview: “The other boy bands… I see them just like ‘I wanna be a star,’ Ya know? I’m like dude, just be a musician.”
Emblem3 ended the concert with the song that started it all: “Sunset Boulevard.” As one of the few bands that made it to Hollywood on X-Factor after performing an original piece, the band recognizes the nostalgia that this song brings to fans. Melding together old material with new harmonies and ending on a riff that induced great frisson in me, the boys gracefully reinvented their signature song. Like a perfect concluding paragraph, “Sunset Boulevard” highlighted the energy of the concert and left viewers excited for the next chapter. Quarantine may have forced us into the confines of our childhood homes, but Emblem3 shows us that family bonding leads old passions to burn all the stronger.