The legendary Rainbow Bar & Grill celebrated its 50th anniversary Sunday, April 24th by throwing a backyard bash. Or parking lot party if you’re being literal. It was an all-day event hosted by Eddie Trunk and capped off by a performance by Steel Panther.

In a day of extreme heat, a line of hopeful concert-goers stretched down to the Whisky as late as 6pm. Many of them could be heard saying they should have gotten there when the doors opened at 1pm. And that’s especially true when you realize that Sometimes Y hit the stage at 5:25 to make their live debut.

Sometimes Y is the new rock project from the team of Yelawolf and Shooter Jennings. Their self-titled album was released just a little more than a month ago and already has over 15 million global streams. The album has gotten rave reviews, but how would they do live?

They would absolutely kick ass.

Yelawolf is a frontman extraordinaire comfortable in both hip-hop and rock. And this particular group of musicians rocked the Rainbow. As long-time members of Shooter Jennings’ band, they were tight in a way they belied the first-time live nature of their show.

John Schreffler Jr. on lead guitar was a bearded wonder, stepping up front and center during the solo and doing the venue proud. Jamie Douglass on drums and Ted Russell Kamp were a rock solid rhythm section. And of course, there was Shooter Jennings holding everything together playing both synthesizer and guitar. At one point, Yelawolf asked the people in the back of the larger crowd if they could hear the synth properly, ‘cause Shooter was doing some great stuff on it.

It was a relatively short set of five songs, but from the first lyric the crowd seemed to know every word. It felt like every single one of them had been part of the 15 million streams.

The day was hot. The sidewalk was hot. The Rainbow’s parking lot was hot. But for a short amount of time, Sometimes Y was even hotter. Whether it just stays as a project or morphs into something else, the music is worth more than just a listen. This is a band that can bring it live.