If there’s one thing we’ve learned in all our years of covering shows, it’s that when times get rough, look to the arts.

In Jesse Welles’ case, he’s become the voice of a disgruntled generation. The musician is bringing the nation’s attention back to protest music thanks to his heartfelt, tongue-in-cheek folk tunes. His protest songs were on full display on Wednesday night at the Uptown, with fans singing along to “The Poor,” “United Health,” and “Join ICE,” a tune that shot him to popularity after performing it on Colbert last year. It’s important to note that also that year, he released four (FOUR!!!) albums. I swear, there’s no better way to stick it to ICE than to write a song about how horribly incompetent and pathetic they are, and then go viral for it and perform it at a series of sold-out-concerts across the country, where folks were gleefully singing along to it. Hell yeah.

Jesse Welles makes the working man’s music. His songs are a masterclass in wring about the beauty that is humanity trapped within corporate hell, and the stage decor reflected this with a power line protruding through a grassy field that Welles performed on barefoot (a nod to his recently released album, Under the Powerlines III).

He divided his set into four segments: two solo with an acoustic guitar, and two with a full band (it went solo, band, solo, band). My God, when the band came on, the party really  started. The full band allowed him to go from quirky singer-songwriter to full on rock-and-roll badass and guitar maestro. You guys, he covered “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath and “Come As You Are” by Nirvana and the fans lost it.

But there was one song that stood out above all others, and that was his solo performance of “Good Morning America.” This was the one tune that brought that entire sold-out theater together. It was the cohesiveness we desired as a country at a time when division has ruined us. That song gave everyone the warm fuzzies.

Steph Strings is an Australian performer (and also a guitar maestro) who, at just 25 years old, has more than a million followers on Instagram in the same year as her debut album coming out– and now she’s opening for this sold-out tour across the country. She only had a handful of songs, but the crowd begged for more. She would later join Welles onstage for “Saint Steve Irwin.”

Photos from the night below.