Student Blog: San Diego's Sun Room is a Magnificent Find

In February, I was lucky enough to see former One Direction member Louis Tomlinson on his first world tour after being rescheduled several times due to the ongoing pandemic. And while Tomlinson himself put on an outstanding performance that left the audience speechless in the best way, the opening act for the tour stood out to everyone as well and I can easily say I'm a new fan of the band for a multitude of reasons.

Sun Room, a band from San Diego, California, took the stage before Tomlinson and won the crowd over in an instant. Luke, Ashton, Max and Gibby are the four members who make up the band and all play their own instruments. When the announcement of the opening act was released, Sun Room only had about 3,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and now, they have accrued over 300,000. And it's obvious why their following has grown just from the fans on Tomlinson's tour. Each song that was performed helped create an atmosphere like no other and captured the attention of everyone in attendance.

With music that is a stunning mix of indie pop and rock, Sun Room perfectly captures the sunny, feel good vibes that are associated with the West Coast and summertime. Some of my personal favorite songs that I would recommend everyone listen to are "Crash My Bike," which may sound familiar to fans of Netflix's Outer Banks, "Fun" and "Sol De Sur". All of these songs were performed live as part of their opening set and had the crowd dancing along and enjoying the positive feel in the air that was evident.

By the time the first song was over, I already knew this band would be one of my favorite artists going forward. While we waited for Tomlinson to come on, I pulled my phone out and looked up the band on Spotify to click the follow button on their page. The Instagram follow happened only moments later too. Sun Room's sound is everything I adore about indie music, but the overlap into pop and rock makes them appealing to everyone.

This is also not the first time Tomlinson has discovered a band that no one knew of and put them in a well deserved spotlight. Back in 2013, a relatively unknown band from Australia called 5 Seconds Of Summer opened for One Direction on two of their world tours. And since then, 5SOS has become one of the most listened to and popular bands in the world which can be traced back to their short stints with One Direction. Tomlinson himself found the band early in their career and after inviting them on tour, the rest became history. I can see this being the same track of success for Sun Room as well.

All in all, I cannot recommend checking Sun Room out enough. They are a band like no other and their music is one-of-a-kind in the best way possible. Don't be surprised if you start seeing or hearing about them more often going forward. I'm definitely a fan already and was impressed by a short opening set that they put on for the one concert I attended to see Tomlinson. Discovering this band was a treat and I can't wait until the world finds the treasure trove of their talent.

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