Billy Raffoul at Bottom Lounge in Chicago 2023

25 Feb, 2023 John Kosiewicz Concert Reviews, Rock

Billy Raffoul Winter 2023 Tour

In early December 2022, American Authors announced Canadian rocker, Billy Raffoul to perform in support of their Best Night of My Life Tour. The tour kicked off on February 10th at The Warehouse in Fairfield, CT. The month-long tour made stops across the US with dates in New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, to name a few. The final stop being at Neumos in Seattle, WA on March 12.

Bottom Lounge

On Saturday, February 25, 2023, the Best Night of My Life Tour stopped at the Bottom Lounge in Chicago. Raffoul walked out on stage alongside guitarist Justin Zuccato. Raffoul’s combination raspy vocals and soulful paired perfectly together. Highlights of the set included:

“You Be Love” the Bottom Lounge was a great setting to start the show with this beautiful and intimate song
“Coffee” with his story on how Holiday Inn follows him on Instagram as a result of the song
“Jim Carey” as he called it, a “super sad” song
“Alligator” brand new, yet to be release song
“I’m Not a Saint” off EP 1975
“We Could Get High” closed out the set with the audience singing along to this energetic song

Raffoul made a bonus appearance, when the Zac Barnett of American Authors brought him back on stage. The two of them started out as a duo performing their first collaboration, “Say Amen”. “Say Amen” was released in 2019 and can be found on American Authors’ album, Seasons. Further into the song, the rest of American Authors, along with Zuccato to finish the song.

About Bill Raffoul

The communion between an artist and a room full of people endures is one of the most sacred forms of connection. As emotion and energy transfer back-and-forth, this interchange of feelings might be the closest thing we have to true magic in our physical world. Billy Raffoul writes music with this moment in mind. Guitar in hand and microphone on, his voice echoes with a graceful grit that comes right from the gut as he tells stories straight from the heart.

After generating hundreds of millions of streams and earning acclaim from American Songwriter, Paste, and more, the award-winning Ontario singer, songwriter, and producer continues to captivate on his debut EP for Nettwerk.

During 2017, Billy made his debut with the single “Driver.” Following the 1975 EP and The Running Wild EP, he released his debut full-length, A Few More Hours at YYZ in 2020. The single “Acoustic” generated over 60.7 million Spotify streams as “Easy Tiger” surpassed 19.4 million Spotify streams. The same year, he maintained this momentum with International Hotel and shared bills with Kings of Leon, Kaleo, X Ambassadors and more. Reaching another level, 2021 saw him garner the SOCAN Songwriting Prize for the single “Western Skies.”

Despite the Pandemic lockdown, he focused on writing and recording as much as possible. He collaborated with longtime creative cohorts Justin Zuccato and Mike Crossey remotely and occasionally in-person, piecing the EP together over these sessions.