Nick Wagen and WOAH took over Lakeview East on March 28. The unassuming Tuesday night was about to come to life with Indie music.

With fans’ excitement roaring throughout the Schubas Tavern, they awaited Yna and the Seasons, who opened the venue for the two headliners.

With the lights changing, Yna and Seasons appeared, mesmerizing the crowd with their voices. This was their first time performing at a venue since becoming a band earlier this year. 

“I had a big imposter syndrome moment where I felt like I didn’t deserve this or that people wouldn’t care to listen to someone like me—a queer Asian woman opening for 2 headliners who are white men,” Yna Pineda said. “Not a lot of people who look or sound like me are up on a stage, so I kept doubting if I could do it.”

The highlight of the show was when Pineda had the audience say how they were worthy and how they were loved. Everyone in the crowd connected instantly. 

Ava Breslin, an audience member and new Yna and the Seasons fan, said, “Artists don’t interact with the audience unless it is to hype it up. It gave us the space as an audience to express our feelings with each other which is unique.”

Pineda’s music is a “culmination of indie and ambient influences,” making them the perfect opener for Nick Wagen who is an up and coming Indie artist. 

Wagen, an artist from Chicago began to make beats after listening to a few friends make music. He originally started making rap music and then ventured into Indie and found his true rhythm. 

Almost exactly a year ago, Wagen opened at Schubas for Ax and the Hatchmen. Last year, Wagen performed with a full band. This year was different as Wagan only performed with a live guitarist and audio tracks from his songs. 

“I wanted to kind of transition into using more tracks from the songs,” Wagen said. “So it feels more like the actual recorded versions, and then just like an elevated live version, instead of like what I was doing with the live band, which were whole different versions of the songs.”

Although Wagen has around 130,000 monthly listeners and roughly around 6.3 million streams, he was not sure if he had fans or if people were going to come to the show. 

“It was also just crazy to see how many people knew my songs which I genuinely don’t like to think that I have fans or anything,” Wagen said. “But, when people were in the crowd that I didn’t recognize that weren’t my friends, singing my songs and coming up to me afterwards I was just like, wow, this is like actually becoming a little bit more than what I thought it was,” Wagen said. 

The sold out show contained many unreleased songs which was one the most exciting parts of the night.

“I was very nervous, but also very excited to kind of showcase those. I was really nervous about how the crowd was going to react because I’ve done shows before where, like, the crowd has been really hyped up,” Wagen said. “And then like, the show is just like, the energy is crazy. And I’ve also done shows where, like, the crowd just stands there and stares at you. So, it was great to see people actually dancing and moving.”

One of the artist’s newest songs, “We Could Be Complete” released on Friday April 7.