You certainly missed out on the best night of your life if you skipped out on the American Authors concert in ATS. After a very late announcement of the winter concert headliner, student tickets were not originally available for purchase, prompting student fans to buy $20 general admission tickets (a whole $5 more than the student price!) for a show where they would really only know one song. Doors opened at 7:00 PM to a plethora of students eager to take their seats in the stands rather than in the pit. 

After a brief prompting from the MOB concert organizers, students left their seats and took their place on the floor as we anxiously awaited the opener, Billy Raffoul. The Canadian artist, with one of the most beautiful heads of hair I have ever seen, took to the stage without his setlist. Turned out that he and his stage partner, “The Indiana Drones,” did not need the list. As he said right before the set, the good thing about being an opener is that no one knows their songs. Raffoul’s music, which can only be described as a millennial-grunge-indie mashup, quickly entranced the crowd. He played music off of his new EP “Bliss,” which was released the day before his performance in Carlisle. Overall, Billy Raffoul and Indiana Drones did a great job at getting the energy up and preparing the crowd for the main event.

To say that the American Authors killed it would be an understatement. The show started strong with “Believer” from their best album “Oh, What a Life.” The energy never dipped and the crowd interaction was top tier. What was so admirable about the band was that they seemed to really know their audience. After an introduction with their own songs, to everyone’s surprise American Authors started playing “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, and the crowd went wild. At the halfway point of their set, the band played their new instant classic “Best Night of My Life” (not to be confused with their 2014 smash hit “Best Day of My Life”). The memes posted by the band leading up to the drop of their new song only added to the hype and they did not disappoint.

At this mid-point in the set, the frontman Zac Barnett told the crowd that the band went into town to explore. You can see their collection from Carlisle on their Instagram, even though the location is tagged as Philadelphia. What is not included in their post that Barnett told the crowd was that they ended up at ‘G-Man,’ a student-favorite bar in town. 

As the night came to an end, everyone was patiently waiting for “Best Day of My Life.” For their second to last song, the band played “good 4 u” by Olivia Rodrigo. Once again, the older band knew just how to accommodate their set for a younger audience. Immediately following the Gen-Z favorite was the moment everyone was waiting for: “The Best Day of My Life.” The crowd got quite a bit rowdy, no doubt pumped-up from the previous song. Security even had to go around telling students to get off of each other’s shoulders, I have no idea who would’ve thought that was a good idea.

There was a meet and greet for Billy Raffoul and American Authors at the conclusion of the concert. Raffoul and the Authors were so sweet and down to earth, signing anything handed to them and taking goofy pictures with fans. They seemed genuinely happy and excited to meet everyone.

None of this would have been possible without the MOB Concert Chair Mimi Pelton-McCormick ‘23 and WDCV Concert Chair Jordyn Case ‘25. Thank you for the best night of our lives!