King Tut’s was full of life as We Three took to the stage on the first stop of their almost sold-out UK/Europe tour.
By Erin Howatson (she/her)
Oregon-born siblings Manny, Bethany, and Joshua make up the band We Three, have earned an impressive 1.2M monthly listeners on Spotify and the same number of followers on Tik Tok through their emotional and heartfelt ballads that create a safe space for their fans to talk about their mental health and to be seen through their lyrics.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Manny, Bethany, and Joshua before they performed later that evening. They expressed their excitement about playing to Scottish crowds: “We love it, we fit in here”, especially in King Tuts, “we’ve heard it’s the best, every time we tell people were playing at King Tuts they’re always like oh best venue.”
The venue was buzzing with energy before the show as I heard groups of girls starting to get excited, others buying merch, and people taking photos in their carefully planned outfits. I immediately noticed the diverse audience there – from young teenage girls too excited to think about how they had to be up early for school in the morning, to older men in leather jackets and a drink in hand. We Three clearly have a loyal fanbase.
The energy was electric as soon as the band set foot on the stage. They shared with me before the show that they were planning lots of surprises and crowd interaction, and they certainly lived up to their promise. As a frequent concertgoer myself, I have to say We Three’s crowd interaction is one of the best I’ve seen. The band had multiple conversations with different members of the audience, threw balloons and beach balls into the crowd, and guitarist Manny took multiple fans’ phones and recorded once-in-a-lifetime videos of him and his siblings performing onstage and their view into the crowd.
The band even got the classic Glasgow treatment when the crowd began chanting, “Here we fucking go”. Despite not knowing this was going to happen, the siblings immediately adapted and began improvising a melody to go with the chanting and joined in themselves – creating a fantastic atmosphere within the venue.
Halfway through the concert, the tracks began to slow down and progress into more emotional songs such as ‘Sara’, ‘Heavens not too far’, and ‘Lifeline’, to name a few. It immediately became clear to me how meaningful these songs are to the fans as there was barely a dry eye in the house as the audience sang their hearts out.
This was perfectly demonstrated during ‘Sara’ – a song about mental health, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts, that upon its release, the band encouraged fans to share the track forward to other listeners alongside messages of support.
“I was terrified to release Sara”, Manny confessed, “It has just shown us over and over again that we all feel the same thing.” Bethany added: “We keep finding out that the things that are the most personal are the most universal.”
The band’s stage presence throughout the whole concert was amazing – they’re clearly natural-born performers, and from what I’ve seen online, they give it their all at every single show, so if you ever have the chance to go see them live, do it. You won’t regret it.
They have some exciting plans for next year following their Australia/New Zealand tour: “2023 is going to be touring”. As for music, “Just hang out on Tik Tok, and you never know if we sneak something out”.
If they continue putting on shows like the one at King Tut’s, then I’m sure their audience will only continue to grow for many years to come.
We Three played King Tut’s, Glasgow, on October 9 2022.
Pitch given by Danny Munro
Edited by Theerada Moonsiri
