By Morgan Tinsley

Editor-in-Chief

ALT 105.3 held its annual Not So Silent Night concert at San Jose’s SAP Center on Sat., Dec. 7, featuring six popular alternative groups, an adorable snow globe background for pictures, plenty of long lines, and five dollar bottled water. 

White Reaper, a garage punk band from Louisville, KY, took the stage first. The band played a short but sweet set, performing multiple songs from their new album You Deserve Love. White Reaper played with energy and precision, and their live version of Might Be Right sounded even better than the studio version. 

Icelandic indie folk/pop group Of Monsters and Men followed White Reaper, playing classic hits like Little Talks and Mountain Sound. Lead singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir played with immense heart and emotion, while simultaneously rocking a mullet. The band closed with a moving performance of Six Weeks, a song off of their freshman album, My Head Is An Animal.

Next up were The Raconteurs, an alternative rock band that released their 2019 album Help Us Stranger after a decade-long hiatus. The Raconteurs stole the show with their mesmerizing guitar riffs, unique vocals, and high energy. They opened the show with Bored and Razed, a song from their new album. As their set came to a close, they performed an excellent rendition of Sunday Driver, before finishing with their 2006 hit, Steady, as She Goes.

After a brief break between sets, concert-goers were hit with a loud “WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!” from Matty Healy, lead singer of Manchester band The 1975. The 1975 immediately caught the attention of their audience with their intense, hard rock track People. After People, the group returned to their typical, lighter synth-pop sound. With such minimal set time, The 1975 only managed to play a few hits and recent releases. However, the entire performance was captivating, from their (relatively) happy and upbeat songs like It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You), to their most popular song to date, the slow and somber Somebody Else.

Mumford & Sons brought their classic folk-rock ballads to the stage next, offering a more mature and nostalgic sound in contrast to their modern counterparts in the line up. They opened with Guiding Light, a popular track from their 2018 album, Delta. The band also played I Will Wait and Little Lion Man, which practically every audience member found themselves singing along to, even if they didn’t recognize the name.

Twenty One Pilots, a popular duo made up of drummer Josh Dun and singer Tyler Joseph, closed the show with some screaming, a lot of movement, and a car on fire. The duo opened their set with Jumpsuit, a bass-heavy track from Trench, their 2018 album. The duo continued to play hits like Heathens, Stressed Out, and Ride, wherein Joseph made the audience participate in a singalong of sorts. The band finished the show with Car Radio, a song off of their 2013 album Vessel which originally put them on the map. 

Not So Silent Night 2019 was an entertaining show appropriate for alternative music lovers of all ages. As it does each year, Not So Silent Night’s line-up combined multiple head-line acts into a stellar line up for a night of unforgettable fun.