While students were holding onto the mechanical pumpkin and getting their Fall Fest shirts, the sounds of “Just A Little While” and “Perfect Portrait Of Young Love” echoed throughout the quad as The 502s gave an incredible performance. The annual Fall Fest, hosted by the Student Programming Board and WQAQ, was filled with different activities for all types of people. From painting pumpkins and canvases to dancing in front of the stage, Fall Fest had something for everyone. 

On lead vocals, banjo and acoustic guitar, we have Ed. On keys and electric guitar, there is Matt. Playing the saxophone and trumpet, we have Joe. On drums and percussion, there’s Sean. Next up is Nick on bass. Last, but certainly not least, there is Graci on Guitar. The 502s are an indie/folk band that were created in Florida back in 2016. The band has continued to release albums and found a very interesting way to engage with their audience during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 502s understood how the world shutting down was causing a spike in anxiety. They created Camp Feels Good, an online platform where you can get to know the band. You can watch videos about their songs and performances. This goal was to help people relax and ease their anxiety. The online camp ran for ten days during 2020. They also created a Facebook group that is still running if you want to check it out! 

This was my first Fall Fest and The 502s really helped to make it unforgettable. When I found out The 502s were performing, I wanted to figure out what type of band it was. Despite being called “the happiest band on Earth,” I had no clue what to expect. It wasn’t until I started listening to the band’s music did I understand how that title was earned. The music is upbeat and always good to boost your mood. 

All the songs they chose fit together well. As their fan-given title suggests, their setlist was perfect. Their transitions were excellent and worked with all the songs they played. When walking around Fall Fest during the concert, it created the perfect vibe to paint pumpkins and take some photos. 

When I found out about The 502s performing, I decided to listen to their songs. My favorite song is “Just A Little While” and their performance while playing it made me love the song even more. Some may know this song on social media platforms, as it has become super popular.  “Just A Little While” has over 105,000,000 streams on Spotify alone. This song was released on their album “Could It Get Better Than This” in 2021. This song was excellent when listening on Spotify, but watching their performance added another level of excellence to all of their songs. 

The 502s put on such a great performance. The songs radiated happiness on their own, but the performance instantly put smiles onto the faces of attendees. The band put their best into the performance and took joy in seeing how much fun people were having. The members were also willing to talk with people after the performance and gave out guitar picks as souvenirs. 

The band interacted with the audience, unfortunately being met with people talking about how bad their week was. Midterms were stressful for many students, so The 502s really helped end the stressful time for their audience. Luckily, The 502s were able to help dance the stress away. Those who are named Magdalene and Olivia got really lucky though, because The 502s played the song titled with their names!

The 502s just released a remix and other versions to their song “Perfect Portrait Of Young Love” on Oct 4, so make sure to listen! The band is also about to head to Germany to kick off the European leg of their tour. I wish The 502s luck and plan on seeing the band in the future! 

WQAQ, Q30, and The Chronicle all worked together and submitted questions for The 502s about the band’s backstory and how they are different from many other bands! Check it out:

1. Where does your band name stem from?

Our lead singer Ed started the band with his cousin back in 2016. Growing up they lived on the same street and 502 was Ed’s house number. They quickly had to choose a name for an upcoming battle of the band contest to play a major music festival, which they won and so the name stuck!

2. Where does the nickname the “Happiest Band on Earth” stem from?

That nickname was actually given to us by a fan on social media. As soon as we read it, it connected instantly to the stage show and not to mention the fact that we are from Orlando and are theme park fans. 

3. Where did the idea for “Camp Feel Good” start, and what motivated you to do it amidst the pandemic?

Before COVID, we had just finished the album and had a whole summer tour planned to release it. We had to cancel everything which was a huge bummer, but we knew we still wanted to connect with people somehow, even through a screen. We thought that releasing the album along with a virtual summer camp would be a great experience for everyone stuck at home. We had no idea how many people would show up, but the response was incredible and helped us reach a huge audience!

4. Your song “Just a Little While” has over 100,000,000 streams- what was your experience as the song went viral? How has social media helped in growing your audience and getting your songs out?

The experience of “Just a Little While” becoming a TikTok trend was a totally surreal whirlwind of excitement that has ultimately changed all of our lives (for the better)! We had previously seen some attention on TikTok, particularly from our song “Magdalene” which had a viral performance video about a year before that, but what really made this take off is so many people using our song as a soundtrack to posts of their own lives and experiences. We always try to think about what we want the listener to feel and experience whether their front row at a 502s show or just jamming on their car ride to work. And it’s never stopped being so cool and amazing to us how many people have connected with what we’re doing.

Social media has always been a huge part of our life as a band. In particular, videos of us cramming into a room, a car, or various other spaces to perform our songs live. Our very first tour back in 2018 got booked off of a viral Facebook video of us playing in a laundry room at Ed’s grandpa’s house. Whatever the reason, people seem to connect with the songs and the vibe that we give off when we are playing these songs that we love so much, and our goal is to make people feel that love back. And to get excited to come sing along with us live!

5. How does performing in a college setting differ from other performances/venues?

We love college gigs! A big part of the “Just a Little While” trend was driven by students sharing semester recap videos, so it really makes sense to be able to channel that energy when we perform at schools around the country.

It is definitely a bit of a different vibe than our typical concerts. When we’re playing at a school it’s typical to have a lot of people there who don’t know who we are or know our songs well, but there’s a sort of fun challenge to us in that environment to make sure we are providing a show that everybody can get into, not just the 502s diehards!

6. How has prepping for an international tour been? How is it different from planning a national tour?

We are really excited to get back to Europe and for our first tour of Australia. We’ve been lucky to be able to take advantage of opportunities to tour outside the US in the past, going back to our first ever tours in 2018, and that was part of what really got us hooked on being a touring band. To be so far away from home and have people singing your songs back, in what may not even be their first language, is pretty incredible! There has been a lot of support for our music abroad which has only increased in the last few years and we’re so grateful for it.

Touring is complicated, especially when you’re leaving the country. Normally there is plenty to plan with a 6-person band touring in the US, making sure venues are ready for our show, planning driving times and lodging and stuff like that. But because we’re going overseas, we also need to hire transportation all around, rent gear which we can’t fly with, source merchandise, plan for border crossings … There’s so much to handle which we used to do all ourselves, but thankfully now have a great management team behind us to make sure everything goes smoothly. And all of us in the band are pretty seasoned road warriors at this point, knowing the things that we each individually need to have to give ourselves the best experience and be ready to go when it’s time to play!

7. You posted on Instagram that you have decided not to do a specific setlist. What went into this decision?

This is something that came about on tour earlier this year. The 502s have put in a lot of work over the years to build moments within songs specifically for the live show, and structuring songs together to make something that feels really special. Now that we’ve been doing this a few years, we found that playing the same set made things feel a little too rigid, and it doesn’t work the same night after night. So while there is still a general outline of a setlist, we found that we can do so much more by reacting to the energy of each crowd. It’s not too hard to get a vibe of where people want to go. If they are dancing and cheering and we want the energy to stay high, we have the ability to do that. Or if it seems like people are getting a little tired out and want a break, we can do something quieter. We also have given ourselves a room for improvisation within the songs themselves so they’re not always being played the same way either depending on how the room is feeling to us. Overall, the goal has always been to give the crowd an unforgettable experience, and we feel like this has enabled us to take it to an even greater level.

8. Out of your discography, what would be the band’s anthem song and why?

Every band member has a different answer on this and there are a lot of great songs to choose from. One that stands out from the early days is “Enjoy the Ride” off of our first album. It’s a story song about a group of friends on a road tripping adventure, which is what we were dreaming of at the start of the band, and it sounds a lot like our lives now. But more than that, the song is really about how every day has its good and bad moments, and nothing is going to turn out exactly how you planned, so the most important thing is to experience everything to the fullest and get all that you can out of it. Sooner or later it’s all just a memory and we never know when we’ll be looking back on it all, both the good with the bad… It speaks to all of our hearts and reminds us to be grateful to live this incredible life, wherever it takes us.

(p.s. a fun fact on Enjoy the Ride … it was the first song that we played for our drummer Sean, and even though the recording has absolutely no drums on it, even he will attest to it being his favorite 502s song, so you know that means it’s a good one!)

Check out The 502s’ website, places to stream the music, and a Q&A with the band below!

Band website: https://www.the502s.com/home/

Camp Feel Good: https://www.the502s.com/welcometocamp/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4sIuoDOzSlBqeiNJl631zX

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-502s/1140583482 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDnrcbwXT5E4MAJRtBKA8fg