WILLIS recently delivered their Live 2026 Tour to Washington DC and brought the house down in a way that nobody else can last Saturday. The warm, genre-bending indie-blues band from Nashville is on an extensive mid-summer tour, and if you have the chance, this author absolutely recommends catching them the next time they’re around the DMV.
A packed crowd at The Atlantis was treated to a fantastic show on July 18, but before WILLIS took the stage, two other bands got the party started. The Flooks were the first to come on, sporting their signature paper bag look. The band – who is pretty popular on TikTok with almost 1.5 million followers – actually sells signed paper bags that fans can wear on their own heads at the show, so there were a handful of folks rocking the look.
I was really pleased with the opening set – it set the tone with some fast, energetic music – with the band playing their only two released songs “Remember (Who I Am)” and “Songs I Write” as well as a handful of covers including “End of Beginning” by Djo. It was a great way to start off the evening – not to mention this is part of the band’s first tour ever!
Stream “Songs I Write” by The Flooks on YouTube:
Boyscott took the stage around five minutes after The Flooks left – a very quick transition, but likely pretty simple as Boyscott was pretty stripped down. Lead singer Scott Hermo and Thomas Bora were on guitar, and with Nick Sebastiano on bass it seemed to be a plug-in-and-go type of situation. The three were backed by drum tracks – and sounded great!
Their portion of the show featured a handful of songs from their two albums, Goose Bumps (2019) and Spellbound (2024). Boyscott was less loud/in your face than The Flooks, but absolutely kept the energy up and the heads nodding with their indie sound. I really appreciated how their personality shone through – there were plenty of jokes and interactions with the crowd, allowing Scott to really connect with the crowd before their next song even started.
WILLIS came out around 9:30pm, and jumped right into things with “IDW2,” the opening track on their 2024 Album “I Can’t Thank You Enough.” “Twist of Fate” was next, off of their newest album Locals 5. WILLIS is a very EP-heavy band, with 4 EPs coming before Locals 5 – starting with “Locals,” then “Locals 2”… I’ll let you guess what the 3rd and 4th EP are named.
“Clover” was next, and then the fan favorite “Fight the Vegans.” FTV is classic WILLIS – guitar players Edward Armstead and Trey Murphy complimenting each other and really driving the song forward as lead singer/bassist Murphy Billings sings the song’s pleading lyrics in his instantly recognizable tone. The O’Steen brothers, Glen (drums) and Will (synths) are the consistent backbone of the band, holding it down behind the first three members.
Watch WILLIS perform “Fight the Vegans” live for Audiotree on YouTube:
“The Move,” “Lay Low,” and “Slow Party” were next. Most of WILLIS’s catalogue is between 2-3 minutes long, so the show’s environment was quickly changing depending on the pace of each given song. They jammed out “Slow Party” with a different outro and then moved into “Only” – a much slower ballad.
Next up was “Locals” – a song and word that has become synonymous with the WILLIS brand. The band uses “Locals Only” quite a bit in their marketing and messaging, all of that stemming from this slow song from the first EP.
The next song was the band’s most popular song by a long shot – with over 250 million streams on Spotify and probably the music behind a handful of videos you’ve seen online – “I Think I Like When It Rains” was up. The band leaned into the song’s popularity, having the audience sing along for much of the tune.
“Break Ur Heart Again” and “CJ’s Van” were an energetic end to the main set. CJ’s Van is one of the songs I’d recommend sharing with others who haven’t heard of WILLIS before – it’s a fun, lighthearted song that really shows off the band’s chops.
Watch WILLIS perform “CJ’s Van” live from Portside Sound on YouTube:
After a very brief break, the band came back on for a quick, one song encore. This wasn’t listed on the printed setlist, but I believe they jammed parts of “The Kumite” – a short, tense piece that is the first track on the “Locals” EP, or “Cydd” – the much more energetic song right after on the same EP. I’m reasonably sure one of these was the outro song, but it was tricky to tell as Will’s synth was cranked to the max on this one. I could still feel his bass effect rumbling through my ribcage and rattling around my head walking out of the venue a few minutes later.
Overall, this was an exceptional show – all three of these bands certainly have the capacity to fill bigger spaces, so it was a treat to catch all three in a venue as intimate as the Atlantis. I recommend catching any of these bands the next time they’re in the DMV area.
I actually saw WILLIS open for the Greeting Committee at the Black Cat back in December of 2022, so it was nice to catch them in DC again, just around the block from where I originally saw them. WILLIS is absolutely on the rise, especially thanks to their smash hit “I Think I Like When It Rains,” so catch them soon, before it’s cool!
Setlist
1. IDW2
2. Twist of Fate
3. Clover
4. Fight the Vegans
5. 27 Reasons
6. The Move
7. Lay Low
8. Slow Party
9. Only
10. Locals
11. I Think I Like When It Rains
12. Break Ur Heart Again
13. CJ’s Van
Encore
14. Cydd or The Kumite (?)
Here are some photos of Willis — and opening acts The Flooks and Boyscott — performing live at The Atlantis on July 18, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Luke Waldner.
