My Only Safe Haven

My Only Safe Haven is a local up-and-coming band from Beckley, West Virginia. They've recently released their first album. 
Photo by Haley McCord

On Wednesday, September 2, the band “My Only Safe Haven” returned to Concord University and rocked the campus with some original pieces as well as two cover songs at Subway Sides from 9 PM to 10 PM.

The band is mostly alternative rock with a bit of Christian rock blended in. They are from Beckley, West Virginia and consist of five members: Kayla Saunders on vocals; Caleb Bolen and Preston Belcher on guitar; Brian Sexton on drums; and Taylor Ray on the keyboard.

 The two songs covered were “Misery Business” by Paramore, which the lead vocalist explained was her favorite band and a huge inspiration of the band’s music, and “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World. The audience was small, but the students who attended seemed to genuinely enjoy themselves and sang along to the familiar songs.

My Only Safe Haven was reminiscent of another band called A Day To Remember, which the lead vocalist also explained was another of her favorite bands and inspiration for many of the original songs.

Although the band was entertaining and made sure to welcome and include the audience throughout the performance, the experience felt rather flat. It was hard to hear what the vocalist was singing because the music was extremely loud and drowned out anything else; the vocals were also too muffled to understand, although these things may have been caused more by technical difficultly than user error. However, when I could hear the lyrics, I was not overly impressed; they seemed fairly typical and nothing caught my attention as new and fresh. On the upside, the stage lighting surrounding the performers was bright and fun, changing colors and adding a lighthearted tone to the show. The performers seemed to truly enjoy being on stage entertaining and while the lyrics were somewhat uninteresting, the vocalist had a beautiful voice when I could hear it. However, keeping in consideration that the band is still fairly new, they’ve got a lot of potential and room for growth.

A merchandise table was set up nearby so that students could browse items like wristbands, t-shirts, CDs and posters featuring lyrics and titles of the band’s original songs. Prices were fairly reasonable ranging from ten dollars for albums to fifteen for t-shirts.

Recently, the band made their first music video for their newest single “Can’t Get Enough.” The video can be viewed on Youtube.

For more information about My Only Safe Haven, visit their Facebook page or reverbnation.com/myonlysafehaven.