Student Band West 22nd Sells Out Opening Show Ahead of U.S. Tour

By Ale de la Fuente

Reporting Texas

West 22nd performing at Scoot Inn. Ale de la Fuente/Reporting Texas

“So apparently we sold out,” Logan Madsen said to the cheering crowd after an electric performance of “Sunburns”, a song that boasts more than 3 million streams on Spotify.

Madsen had just started college when he met guitarists Gabe Acevedo and Jeremy Ancheta, who suggested starting a band.

“I never thought it was in my cards until I met Gabe and Jeremy,” he said. “Then we started jamming and hanging, and it just exploded from there. They kind of helped me find the passion for the music.”

Three years later, the boys are getting ready to walk the stage and graduate from the University of Texas at Austin.

“I love this university to death, but I definitely think I’m ready,” Madsen said. “I’m just excited to have this be my full-time job.”

Band manager Conner Kanaly will head to law school at the University of Oklahoma next fall, where he’ll continue managing the band remotely.

“Half the time they come in the living room, they have new songs that they want to show,” Kanaly said. “Logan especially always has some voice memo or something on his phone that he’s ready to show me.”

And although it won’t stop him from performing behind the scenes, he’ll miss the dynamic of living with the boys.

“In terms of being in the room with them and being able to walk down the hall and ask them a question,” he said, “yeah, it’s getting a little different.”

 In their time as college students, UT Austin helped them book and promote their shows for events such as South by Southwest, Austin City Limits Music Festival, and their tour-opening show last Friday.

“UT is such a special school in that it supports music as much as it does,” said guitarist Gabe Acevedo. “I hope they won’t forget about us. We definitely won’t forget about them.”

When the band returns from their 20-stop tour, leaving the university won’t mean they’re leaving the live music capital of the world just yet.

“Every headline West 22nd show, I feel like just more and more people come out and everyone’s singing the songs and just dancing and having a good time,” he said. “That’s all I can ask for.”