The Wrecks Blow the Roof Off Chicago on their INSIDE : OUTSIDE Tour: A Concert Review
- Abby Anderson
- May 8
- 4 min read
Nick Anderson is standing center stage, telling the crowd to split down the middle, moments before jumping over the barricade, barreling through The Wrecks powerhouse closer "Favorite Liar." Following a series of chaotic rockstar-core events, from the jumping crowd making the elevated floor of Chicago's Concord Music Hall physically shake to orchestrating a perfect recording of the 1,500-strong room of fans chanting "Get The Wrecks to Lolla 2026!," alt-rock band The Wrecks closed out their 90-minute set with an addictive afterglow that only left their fans clamoring for more. With the stop in the Windy City falling near the middle of their run on their INSIDE : OUTSIDE Tour, The Wrecks, comprised of lead singer Nick Anderson, lead guitarist Nick "Schmizz" Schmidt, bassist Aaron Kelley, and drummer Billy Nally, pummeled through their delectably unpredictable setlist with the sharp wit, sonic precision, and reverberating residual energy of an electric shock.
With Anderson's vocal chops (that he so humbly identifies in "I Didn't Used To" as being four octaves wide) and Nally's bone-shaking talent behind the kit, The Wrecks open themselves up to a near-seismic live experience. Now supporting their latest project INSIDE : on this bout of shows, The Wrecks know exactly how to harness the bond with fans that the self-deprecating humor and hell-raising vigor of their discography has forged. Tackling soundwave scorchers from three different albums to open their set in the run of "Sonder," "Out of Style," and "Always, Everytime," the band jumped around the stage, mounting amps and all but eliminating the physical barrier between them and the crowd. Every single member of the band put on a hell of a spectacle, shredding instrumental solos through strobe lights and covering every corner of their thematically-decorated stage, which was decked out in leaves, grass, trees, vintage leather couches, and even a (perhaps metaphorical) string of laundry hung out to dry.
The Wrecks are anything but predictable, so they've been switching up the setlist for every single stop on the INSIDE : OUTSIDE Tour. They're also a band with a following dedicated enough that fans hop from city to city to catch as many shows as they can while they're on the road. So while the set opens and closes with Wrecks-classics every night, everything in between is an ADHD-trip through their discography. Before the band launched into the first wild card of the night, every fan's favorite thing to hear is exactly what came out of Nick Anderson's mouth as he introduced "I Love This Part:" "We've taken this one off the setlist for a few shows, but we thought we should bring it back for Chicago." The switch-up clearly had the desired effect, as Anderson bantered with the crowd after the song, pointing out the highest energy clusters of fans scattered throughout the venue and reasoning that they should gather in the middle of the floor - before switching gears and comedically insisting that anyone who had come to the show with a friend should beat up that friend during the next song, the sarcastically pessimistic "This Life I Have."
A stripped down acoustic double feature of The Fray's "Over My Head" and The Wrecks own "Normal" could be seen as a moment of sentimentality in the set for any other band, but Anderson kept up the self-effacing humor, joking with fans about how they should "love bop for the next thirty minutes, get too drunk, then forget tonight happened." The witty detours continued when a fan hoisted a sign into the air reading “Pick a Song: A, B, or C." Nick, ever the chaotic host, quipped hilariously about the downfalls of games like these, much like a man who’s played into too many poorly thought-out, unrehearsed fan requests. After striking a deal that the band would play something good if the chosen song wasn't one they knew how to play, the crowd emphatically raised their hands in the air, holding up letter Cs. Laughing at the uncovered choice, Nick obliged with another fan-favorite, "Fvck Somebody" - only to realize a few lines in that he'd completely mis-sung the song. As he fell to his knees and laughed that he should be fired, the crowd laughed along with him before belting out a crystal-clear word-for-word a cappella chorusing of the entire first verse of the song.
After sealing the lines of "I think I could get used to this / I think I could get used to this life" of "Infinitely Ordinary" with an off-the-cuff, "Yeah, I could!," The Wrecks cleared the stage, powering up for a voltaic encore. Amped by a caucophany of crowd cheers, the band returned full-throttle with "Freaking Out", a cathartic scream-along that felt like something of a collective exorcism after a night of forging bonds through the chaos of music. The Wrecks' biggest hit to date, "Favorite Liar," shut out their set with high-octane ignition as Nick commanded the crowd to split, then disappeared into the chaos for the entire song. If you wanted a final blowout worthy of The Wrecks, you couldn't script the ending scene of their show any better: leaving fans with ringing ears, shoulder to shoulder with their phrenetic frontman, fully immersed in the loud, unpredictable frenzy he and his band helped create.
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