Stand Atlantic, Scene Queen, Magnolia Park, The Home Team, Honey Revenge, Letdown.

Diamond Ballroom, Oklahoma City, OK

August 4, 2024

Review and Gallery by: Ally Arens

Warped Tour is back…ish! Warped founder Kevin Lyman has teamed up with Michael Kaminsky (KMGMT) and Eric Tobin (Hopeless Records) to bring a new outlet for up-and-coming artists across the United States in the form of the Summer School Tour. With sponsors such as Idobi Radio, Hot Topic, and OneRPM, the tour is aiming to offer a platform for emerging artists to perform for larger audiences on one bill, much like Warped Tour did back in the day, albeit on a smaller scale. For this inaugural outing, each date features a rotating order of headliners in The Home Team, Scene Queen, Stand Atlantic, and Magnolia Park, with Letdown. and Honey Revenge serving as support acts. The Encore Nights had the immense pleasure of catching one of the summer’s most anticipated lineups as the Freshman Class of Idobi Summer School came through Oklahoma City’s Diamond Ballroom on August 4.

First to take the stage was Letdown., the solo project of Chicago-based musician Blake Coddington, and he amusingly did so to chants of “Jason,” as the singer does bear somewhat of a resemblance to actor Jason Momoa. They opened their set with “Karma”, from 2023’s Crying in the Shower EP, and the crowd danced and sang along to every minute of their 6-song setlist.

Next up were the other openers of the bill, Los Angeles-based pop-rockers Honey Revenge, who hit the stage with a chorus of cheers. They kicked off their high-energy set with “Recipe for Disaster”, the lead single off the deluxe re-issue of their 2023 debut full-length Retrovision. The duo, consisting of vocalist Devin Papadol and guitarist Donny Lloyd, bring an infectious energy to the stage that makes it impossible not to dance along. They were the only band on the bill that I had been able to see live already, having caught them on last year’s Retrovision Tour, and I am so happy to see them continuing to grow. 

With the Summer School tour, the support acts remain in the same order each night, but the four headliners perform in a rotating order, likely to encourage an environment of camaraderie and encourage people who may only be coming for one specific act to check out the other amazing bands on the bill.

In OKC, the first headliner to take the stage was The Home Team, a pop-punk act hailing from Seattle. Of the bill, THT were the act that I was the least familiar with going into the night, and they definitely won myself (and probably many others) over by the end of their set. I knew right away that we were all in for some major entertainment as soon as the band took the stage, because before any of the musicians came out, there were two individuals dressed in a rat and elephant costume, respectively, that came out and started dancing around while the rest of the band began to assume their positions. The band recently dropped their third album, The Crucible of Life, back in July, and they highlighted this album the most throughout their set, opening with “Brag” and closing with the album’s lead single “Loud”. Vocalist Brian Butcher has an amazing range that goes back and forth between smooth and jazzy and aggressive with an ease unlike most, and the rest of the band is pretty great as well.

Next up was the heaviest act on the bill, alternative rockers Magnolia Park, blending spooky aesthetics with catchy choruses in genre-transcending beauty. Though their lighting was largely a photographer’s nightmare with a lot of heavy blue tones, their performance was one for the books, opening up with “Misfits” from Baku’s Revenge. The tone ranged from catchier pop-punk-esque moments like “Addison Rae” to heavier headbangers like “Animal”, and the crowd was eating it up. Near the end of the set, they brought Honey Revenge vocalist Devin Papadol back out for “Unholy Heart” in a highlighting moment, which was then one-upped by the giant conga line through the venue that broke out during their finale, “Feel Something”. Despite having to pause briefly during latest single “Shallow” to allow for security to attend to a medical emergency, both the band and the crowd seemed to be having the time of their lives.

The third headliner to take the stage is likely the most polarizing act on the bill – and also my most anticipated. I’ve been a fan of Scene Queen since before she was performing under that name (and I still have “Are You Tired” in heavy rotation…), and I absolutely love her zero-fucks-given attitude towards making music that can go from ass-shaking in the “twerkle pit” to headbanging and speaking out against misogyny to line-dancing about sex and everything in between. This show marked Scene Queen’s first show in OK, and she was ready to “put the hoe in Oklahoma”, as she so proudly declared. The set kicked off with a very high energy trio from June’s Hot Singles in Your Area in “Pink Push-Up Bra,”  “18+,” and “Whips and Chains” before throwing it back to Bimbocore with “Pink Paper”. The latter of which was a very fitting selection because there were definitely some…substances… lingering in the air by that point in the night. Her set felt like it flew by, and the room could not stop dancing. She also brought out her boyfriend Joey Fleming of In Her Own Words, to duet “Barbie and Ken” before closing with the very gay “Pink Panther” and her anti-catcalling anthem “Pink Rover.” I had been waiting over 2 years to finally see Scene Queen live, and it was everything I could have hoped for and more!

Closing out the night were, fittingly, those who had travelled the farthest to be there. Hailing all the way from Sydney, Australia, pop rockers Stand Atlantic closed the night with a bang. Their setlist highlighted some of the bangers from their forthcoming album WAS HERE, due out August 23, as they opened with “WARZ0NE”, followed by “Jurassic Park” from 2020’s Pink Elephant. Their set was extremely energetic, and a fitting closure to what was one of the most fun shows I have been to in a long time. Their set closed with the absolute headbanger known as “deathwish”, and though I was exhausted, I was a bit sad that the night was coming to an end.

The lights went up, and many either filed out the doors toward their cars, or headed toward the merch tables, where many of the artists were set to hang out and meet people. Suddenly, the lights went dark again, and a combination of members of different bands on the tour, including Brian from The Home Team and Bon from Stand Atlantic on vocals, to perform a surprise cover of Linkin Park’s “Faint” that, according to Bon, “had only been rehearsed once”. The super-group sounded absolutely amazing, and capped off a night well-spent.

The Summer School tour continues on August 9 at The Showbox SoDo in Seattle, Washington before continuing through the west coast, concluding on August 17 in Anaheim, CA. Tickets for the remaining shows can be found at summerschooltour.com.