The Northeastern Council for University Programs hosted lo-fi artist Dreamer Boy to kick off AfterHours programming for the fall semester Sept. 15. 

Dreamer Boy, or Zach Taylor, is a Nashville-based artist who grew up in Spokane, Washington. He released his first album, “Love Nostalgia,” in 2018 and has been growing a following since, with over 650,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. 

“Dreamer Boy has a really fun sound that a lot of Northeastern students seem to like,” said Justyna Stukin, a fifth-year behavioral neuroscience major and small concerts chair for Council for University Programs, or CUP. 

Dreamer Boy is an earth-conscious artist and has a Stream 4 Trees partnership with the nonprofit One Tree Planted, which works with local communities to help rebuild forests and restore biodiversity. His most popular songs include “Falling for the Wrong One” and “Crybaby.” Dreamer Boy’s music falls into the rising “bedroom pop” genre, and he has opened for similar artists like Still Woozy and Omar Apollo. Dreamer Boy recently toured with Clairo on her European “Immunity” tour. 

Corinna Parrish, a third-year psychology and music combined major, opened the concert sporting a teal electric guitar to match her butterfly hair clips and high-energy performance. Parrish and her band played both originals and covers, the latter category including a unique raspy twist on the classic “Dancing in the Moonlight,” which had the crowd grooving. Parrish’s original lyrics ranged from heartbreaking to soul searching, and she and her bandmates plugged Northeastern’s songwriting club, which they lead. 

Once Dreamer Boy took to the stage, the energy in the crowd skyrocketed as he leaped and jumped across the small platform, pausing only to perform a series of jerky dance moves. 

“I get out of breath on stage because I kind of like to freak out a bit,” he said to the crowd. 

After his first song, Dreamer Boy sat down on the stage to do some freestyling that had the crowd laughing.

“Pumpkin spice lattes are back, baby,” he said in reference to the Starbucks that is in the AfterHours venue. “We don’t give a f*** outside the Starbucks,” he sang. 

Throughout the rest of the concert, Dreamer Boy proved to be an artist with a mission to spread love. He was conversational with the crowd and made the small space even more intimate by kneeling down at eye level with fans as they sang along. 

“The stage is so low so you feel closer to the artist,” said Eli Minihan, a second-year business administration major. 

Dreamer Boy sang some of his older songs but also a handful from his newest album, “All the Ways We Are Together,” which he released this past Earth Day April 22. He encouraged the people in the crowd to sing along even if they didn’t know the lyrics, and he provided choreography for choruses.

Although it boosted the crowd’s energy, Dreamer Boy’s skipping and lively interpretive dancing across the stage did not bode well for the sound system, and his set had to stop four times due to technical issues.

He filled the empty moments without the microphone with more relatable ad libbing. He took someone’s BeReal, raved about Symphony Sushi and managed to hoot “yee haw” between every couple of sentences. He was as goofy offstage as he was on, though eventually he had to move his performance to a stationary mic to avoid any more interruptions. 

“It’s torture for me to stand right here, but I feel like moving around was the problem,” he said. “This has been the roller coaster I needed in my life.”

For the concert finale, Dreamer Boy sang his hit “ARE YOU LETTING GO?,” which features the artist BENEE. The crowd was ecstatic, and Dreamer Boy hopped off the stage to join the students, jumping around in a sweaty frenzy and seemingly having the time of his life with people who were previously strangers. 

“The fact that he just came down into the crowd and danced with us — it was a great time,” said Ben Lanava, a third-year environmental engineering major. “He has a great positive energy.”