Barefoots hosted the bands Telehope and Jombi for a concert in the Student Union Building the evening of Friday, Feb. 7.
The free concert was the first of two to be held by Barefoots in February, aligning with the programming for Union’s Scholars of Excellence scholarship competition.
Barefoots’ doors opened at 7:30 p.m. By 8 p.m. seating had filled to near capacity, and a line ran across the venue for the coffee bar.
The concert was opened shortly after 8 p.m. by Memphis psychedelic rock group Jombi. The four-person jam band played a number of tracks from their 2023 album “Out to Pasture”, such as “Nothing Left to Say” and “All I Am.” Their set implemented extended stretches of instrumental and solos while navigating several genre styles.
The main act of the night was Telehope, a three-man indie-pop band based in Cincinnati. Their performance used electric guitar, drums and occasional pieces of saxophone with the vocals. The band included several dynamic and crowd-work elements during their set, including t-shirt and CD giveaways, light shows and band members switching instruments.
Telehope provided insight to their music and personalities during their set, referencing backstories of songs and mentioning that they produce their work themselves in a home studio.
Telehope performed several songs from their 2024 album “Chasing Nostalgia,” including the single “I Think I Really Love Her.” They also played short covers of popular music, such as “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire.
A portion of the crowd was made up of visiting high school seniors for the Scholars of Excellence competition over the weekend. One student attending was Marena Jacobs from Columbia, TN, who afterwards commented on her first Barefoots concert.
“I just love that the environment here is so active,” Jacobs said. “No one’s just sitting down on their phone or anything. Everyone’s jumping up and down, getting into the concert.”
Luke Barnard, a freshman sociology major, also spoke about how he has enjoyed the experiences offered by the campus venue.
“The live music at Union has been my gateway into new music tastes, meeting new people and learning new genres through my friends here at Union. That’s been a really cool experience,” Barnard stated.
“I think Barefoots concerts are probably the life pulse of the campus in a lot of ways.”
In order to book for Barefoots events, Karis Murila, the director of Barefoots and Modero, works with a team to find bands that can fit with Barefoots’ approach to live music.
“We want bands that are either doing something fun or cool with their music. We like bands that have similar values to Union, but also we get people from all different walks of life,” she said.
In the coming weeks, Telehope will perform a virtual tour for a selection of countries from Feb. 20-23, and Jombi will play at Growlers in Memphis with Massey Lane and Avon Park on Feb. 21.
