The Droptines swung by Wichita for a Friday night show at WAVE indoor, and their own brand of dark country shone through. Lyrically harsh, punchy, and oft poignant, their short, melodically interesting songs (with hardly ever a repeated hook) proved to make a very enjoyable evening of music. Conner Arthur’s raspy vocals feel destined to haunt my listening queue for years to come. WAVE indoor, not quite as sparsely populated as normal but still with as much awkward feng shui as normal, is not an easy venue to play, but the Texas-based band still put on a great show.

The opener, Keyland, shows promise in their writing, but the lack of a click track/in-ear monitors, at the very least for the drummer to keep time, was apparent and led to them sounding like an up and coming garage band more so than being ready for a big stage. They have heart, and I hope they stick with it and continue to hone their craft.