LOUIS THE CHILD - FRIENDSGIVING - ARAGON BALLROOM CHICAGO

The EDM duo from Chicago that calls themselves Louis the Child consists of Robby Hauldren and Freddy Kennett. Robert David Hauldren was born on September 7, 1996, and grew up in Northfield, IL. Before Robby decided to jump headfirst into his professional music career he attended one academic year at the University of Southern California. Frederic Judson Kennett was born on October 19, 1997. Early in Freddy’s career, while he was still in high school, he produced music under the alias Fatboy. Both Robby (class of ‘15) and Freddy (class of ‘16) were students at New Trier High School in Winnetka, IL. and met each other at a Madeon concert. Louis the Child started performing at small venues throughout the Chicagoland area in 2013. Later in their careers, they would open for artists such as Madeon and The Chainsmokers and to this day have performed at major music festivals such as Coachella, Electric Forest Festival, Electric Zoo New York, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, and Moonrise.

In 2017, the musical duo set out on their Last To Leave Tour. I had the pleasure of seeing Louis the Child Live in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom. The Aragon Ballroom is a historical music venue in north Chicago. The ballroom itself has an old school facade covered in extravagant paintings. The concert was held on November 24th and this particular show was called Louis the Child’s Friendsgiving. The acts included Win and Woo, Party Pupils, Joey Purp, and the headliner Louis the Child. All the musicians partnered up with and donated ticket sales to the Greater Chicago Food Dispensary for a food drive and with SocialWorks, a foundation that supports Arts in Literature programs in Chicago Public schools, founded by Chance the Rapper.

Louis the Child opened with “From Here” which was perfects given that they were playing in their hometown at a venue they were once an opening at earlier in the careers. They performed for a sell out crowd of 5,000 people and played a set that included some of their other popular songs like, Go, Weekend, Slow Down Love, Fire, World on Fire, Phone Died, my personal favorite song Love is Alive, Body Gold, Casee, Feeling of Life, Compass, the debut of their new song Right to It, and concluded with an encore to perform their most popular song It’s Strange. Robby and Freddy brought the energy level in the building to a maximum from the second they stepped on stage and it didn’t falter for a second until they played the last song. The acoustics in the ballroom really made you feel the music just as much as you heard it. The Aragon Ballroom is completely general admission based so there is no assigned seating, just 5,000 people on a dance floor jamming out to their common love for good music. It was a night that I will never forget.

The two coolest moments of the concert for me came when there was a break in the music. While taking a quick breather from jumping around on stage and grabbing a drink of water Robby shared the story of the night they were an opening act at the Aragon Ballroom. He said that after the show they were told that the crowd didn’t like them and that if they ever wanted to perform at Aragon Ballroom again they’d have to make some serious changes, admitting it was one of the lowest points in their career. To share that story with a sold-out crowd at the very same venue was more than inspirational, it was honest. My other favorite moment was at the end of the concert while performing It’s Strange both Robby and Freddy came down into the crowd and started dancing with everyone. As the song died down, and the concert came to a close they began to thank and hug all the fans that stuck around. It was the interactive, heartfelt, and energetic experience that made the concert one I’ll honestly never forget. The fact that I was able to go see two kids that went to a high school that rivaled the one I went to and were roughly the same age as me do what they love doing in front of a sold-out crowd in our hometown was the experience of a lifetime. That being said, I highly recommend that if your friends call you last minute the day after Thanksgiving and ask you to go to a Louis the Child with them that you say yes, I promise you won’t regret it.