Conjuring up positive energy from a crowd soaked as a result of the relentless rain is no easy feat; in fact, some would say it’s impossible. But those individuals have never met gnash, an artist who is the embodiment of sunshine.

Decked out in The Broken Hearts Club merch from head to toe and his signature round sunglasses, gnash energetically sprinted onto the U Street Music Hall stage. Wasting no time, he jumped (quite literally) into “imagine if”, the second track off his debut album ‘we.’

Finally processing the fact that that he managed to sell out the venue at the close of the song, gnash blurted out,

“Holy fuck there’s a lot of people...hi everybody!”

It’s in this moment that I recognized why he's sold out the venue; despite his millions of streams and endless accolades, he felt like one of your friends. Missing was the standard barrier between a successful musician and his fans. That’s precisely what has cultivated the unique energy flowing throughout the room.

Riding the high of his positivity, gnash continued to impress as he gushed about the nation’s capital. An L.A. native himself, gnash explained he needed to FaceTime someone before the next song to ensure the night was memorable. 

“I wanted to make this night super special because my good friend and producer Imad Royal is from D.C....so we gotta go hard for him. I swear to god Imad, please pick up...OH, he picked up!”

Next up was “super lit”, a collaboration between the two artists, which gnash emphasized was performed exclusively for the D.C. crowd. 

But gnash is far from a one trick pony; the night was not without its calmer, introspective moments. Particularly notable was the second to last song of the set, “the broken hearts club”.

After laughing off the technical difficulties surrounding his acoustic guitar, the artist paused before the final chorus,

“This last time, can we put our arm around somebody near us? Tonight was all about coming together, and you guys did that. We didn’t just come to a concert; we became one tonight by singing together and saying ‘I love you,’ being positive, and being great.”

With his innate ability to touch so many souls with genuine messaging around critical topics, it’s pretty clear that gnash is destined to become a longtime fixture in the music industry.