NFV Song Spotlight: Jawdropped's Skully

As some people know, I've tried to put limits on how many times I go out to catch live music each week. I mentioned in my 2024 wrap-up, "I went out way too much this year doing photography. I’m going to need to cut that back in 2025 – fortunately or unfortunately." Have I been all that successful in cutting back how many times a week I head out? As of the end of April, I've gone out 10 fewer times than as compared to 2024. Not bad. Of course, I've replaced going out with the re-boot of this blog site, which had remained dormant for a couple years. 

Jawdropped at Zebulon

Anyways, I notice Zebulon had a free night of music on a Friday night. A band I'd never heard of named Jawdropped was celebrating their EP Just Fantasy release. That was three enticing bits of info for me: free, never heard of the band (each year I always put together a list of my favorite new bands), and EP or album release. I was still hesitant. There is a 2025 New Year's resolution to keep. 

Jawdropped at Zebulon

Obviously, I ended up going, but what tipped the scales? As some people know, I was a photographer for Buzzbands for a number of years. I happened to take a look at Kevin Bronson's recent playlist and noticed that Jawdropped was on the list. I decided: if Kevin is signing off on the band, I'm heading out. 

I was not disappointed. I was hanging out near the stage and as time for their set approached, their fan base started to crowd around me. To make sure I had a clear camera angle, I edged closer to the stage. For me, when the crowd packs the front of the stage, it builds my anticipation level. I'm thinking, the crowd knows something that I do not know.

Jawdropped at Zebulon

The band came up to the stage with the crowd screaming around me. Lead singer Kyra Morling took a relaxed and reclined seat on the stage floor. She had the biggest smile. Then the opening orchestral blast of their song "Skully" hooked me immediately. Morling took a sip of water and then rose to her feet and got the crowd even more pumped by raising her arms to indicate that she wanted to crowd to scream. After that roaring crowd response, the band repeated the opening measures of the song. With that co-vocalists Roman Zangaria and Morling sang with painful emotions about a couple that is perhaps too co-dependent on each other:

But I’m stuck to you
Like a bad mistake

Jawdropped at Zebulon

"Thanks for coming out and celebrating. The lights are so dark. I hope everyone is having a good time. I Can't see anything."

Their song "Outside" had the crowd dancing to the alt rock tune and the shared vocals duties. My observation is that during the song Morling took at least two sips from her water bottle. At the beginning of the set, she took sips from a paper cup, but transitioned to a water bottle. (Zangaria had a bottle of something or other on stage, but I did not notice him taking any sips from it.) "They wanna see us torn in two. But we’ve got a love that must be true." Morling gave a shout out to her dad who was in the audience and drove all the way from Thousand Oaks, "Ouch." Is Thousand Oaks really that far away from Zebulon? I guess with Friday night traffic it is.

The set ended with Morling toasting her paper cup with the beer cans of her friends up at the front. 

Did I hear someone in the audience shout out "Edelweiss?" I'm of an age, as well as a big fan of TCM movies, that I am well familiar with the movie Sound of Music. Do younger people still know about that movie? Maybe so. 

Setlist: Skully, Another Day, Fantasy, Monday, Blessed Unrest, Scattered, Iris (Goo Goo Dolls cover), Outside, Star.