Bay Area artist, JAWNY, found himself back in Colorado for back-to-back nights as he embarked on his “It’s Never Fair, Always True” US tour.”
Born Jacob Sullenger in the Bay Area and raised in Philadelphia, JAWNY first picked up a guitar at age six after watching his dad jam to the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. At 13, he started making music with his brother, eventually landing placements with rappers on SoundCloud. After JAWNY released his 2018 debut EP under the name Johnny Utah, he began landing placements on critically acclaimed shows like the HBO series High Maintenance. JAWNY followed that up with a handful of buzzworthy singles, including “Honeypie,”, a standout track that landed on several tastemaker playlists and garnered millions of streams.
In 2020, JAWNY signed with Interscope Records and soon released a pair of vibrant, critically acclaimed projects, For Abby, and The Story of Hugo, showcasing his sharp storytelling and sonic experimentation. JAWNY has since amassed over one billion streams globally, headlined his first US tour, and was selected as one of Vevo DSCVR’s Artists To Watch 2022.
One of the most essential attributes of JAWNY’s career has always been his honesty and transparency. Over the past few years, the Bay Area artist has gained many followers and a place in music because he makes listeners feel like they know him personally through his music. His music creates a sense of connection within his fanbase, as over 300 people filled into Fort Collins Aggie Theater one day on (Sept. 26th) and the next Boulder’s Fox Theater on (Sept. 27th) for his second headlining tour, “It’s Never Fair, Always True,” making it his second time to perform in Colorado this year already. This time, he had support by bringing along Adan Diaz and Co-Stanza as show openers.
“I feel like I made my dream album that I wish I had the ability to make when I was 17″ – JAWNY.
I got a chance to attend both the Fort Collins and the Boulder show and experience JAWNY for the first time to review both concerts. Keeping true to the hopeless romantic theme presented throughout lots of JAWNY’s music, JAWNY has his “Boy Scout” cover art made into logos all around the stage that instantly catches the crowd’s attention. Raised in the illustrious Chicago, Illinois, Adan Diaz burst onto the music scene almost three years ago after releasing countless singles over the past few years. Adan immediately engaged the crowd with his confident energy and unique musical style. He performed songs like “Bad Joke,” “Best Friends Girl,” “Three Days”, and more. Another Chicago artist named “CO-STANZA” was the second opener for the tour. CO-STANZA has relocated to Fort Collins, Colorado, to refocus on his music career. He performed his latest singles, “Kickback,” “On My Mind,” “Sunny”, and more. Both openers did a great job of keeping the crowd engaged, and after the opening sets finished, the crowd was excited and ready for the man of the hour to appear.
As the stage lights get dark, the music for the “intro” starts to play throughout the speakers. Wearing a vintage multicolored Cheating Snakes hockey jersey, his signature blond hair and glasses, JAWNY was welcomed with roaring applause from the crowd as he stood before the “Boy Scout” cover art, as mentioned earlier. After performing “Strawberry Chainsaw,” JAWNY made sure to take a moment to talk about how he missed being in Colorado. After his dialogue, he performed “Sabotage,” the crowd screamed as loud as they did when he first came on stage. As the show continued, JAWNY jumped back and forth between projects, performing songs from “It’s Never Fair, Always True” and “For Abby”. This show mirrored the energy of his previous tour, with JAWNY creating a vibe that can only be felt at his concerts. The crowd was packed with people front to back; everyone had a drink, and there was smoke in the air even though the venue didn’t allow it at first. Most concertgoers know how that goes!
Before ending the show with the well-known track “selfish hate” JAWNY shared a moment with those in attendance, thanking everyone for coming to support him, and for never giving up on him. JAWNY’s Colorado stop for his album “It’s Never Fair, Always True” shows that his style, and talent are non-matched. He performed 13 songs in total, and every minute of each one was worth it. As concertgoers left both the Aggie Theater, and The Fox Theater you could still hear JAWNY’s music being played at the bar across the street from the venue. Make sure to stream “It’s Never Fair, Always True” below!
Setlist
- intro
- Strawberry Chainsaw
- Sabotage
- Trigger Of Love
- wide eyed
- adios
- Take It Back
- E-Pro (Beck cover) (Snippet)
- Best Thing
- Honeypie
- Boy Scout
- Tombstone Grey
- selfish hate
