I ran into Daniel Gum as soon as I came in the door. He was frazzled. Hosting a party is never easy, and he was hosting the launch party for his long-awaited second album. It's an album that he spent five years writing and recording, persevering through a global pandemic, political upheaval, busted relationships and plenty of band drama. He could barely breathe. He tried to be congenial, but when he realized that he hadn't set up the merch yet, he rushed off to find a folding table. I wished him well and departed to claim my usual table in the corner.

It wasn't long after ten o'clock that Fullbloods took the stage. This decade-long solo project of multi-instrumentalist and producer Ross Brown has suffered frequent lulls dictated by time and inspiration, but with a new album due soon, the project is in full swing once again. These days his live show features guitarist Konnor Ervin, keyboardist Kyle Little, bassist Kyle Rausch, and drummer Fritz Hutchison. They're a sort of house band, supporting each other's endeavors – perhaps a Kansas City indie pop version of The Funk Brothers. The show started with a bop titled "Fish in a Bowl" from the forthcoming album. It got the crowd dancing. Like most of the set, the song was light and breezy, with an air of tuneful '70s pop rock. The vocals held the melody, guitars had some jangle, the rhythm section had some jump, and the piano chimed with jaunty stabs. The quartet stretched out during "Bump on the Head," giving both Brown and Ervin a solo. Brown did his best Todd Rundgren impression during the soulful "Last Day." The band never overplayed – drum fills were rare, guitar solos were concise, and the small amps that littered the stage never overwhelmed. In fact, none of the fivesome worried much about appearances or putting on a show, instead letting the well-crafted compositions do all the work. The act ended its seven-song set with pre-release single "No Hesitation." It too was a danceable bop, adding symmetry to the thirty-minute performance. If you missed this one, you can catch Fullbloods on March 7th at Hillsiders for its own album release party.

The harsh red lights that punished the opener were softened when the stage was turned over to Daniel Gum. But in any light, he was nervous. Around him were Fritz Hutchison (again!) on guitar, Joel Stratton on bass, and drummer Jade Harvey. It was a new lineup for Gum. A big stage for Gum. A big night for Gum. He opened with "If Every Day is Sun" playing acoustic guitar. It was a curious choice to begin the set with the album's final track. Over the next sixty-five-minutes Gum would shuffle through all ten songs from his record – soon trading the acoustic guitar for an electric one, and later for a third electric. He battled with tuning a time or two, using the break to deliver self-effacing witticisms whenever the room grew quiet. But that didn't happen often. The friendly audience filled every pause with whoops and hollers and woos for Gum and his music. They sang along to most songs, and shouted the lyrics to "Glory of Love" loudly enough to startle the band. Hutchison's second guitar (and occasional lap steel) added nuance to the compositions – some haunting lines, some comforting lines, but no show-stealing solos. His interplay with Gum on "Brother Shaun" was special. Stratton steadied the ship. He's played with Gum for years. Harvey, on the other hand, is new. He came to rock, pushing the slower tunes clumsily, and revving up the loud ones righteously. Gum has been known to play insistent rock shows (he even has an entire unrecorded album inspired by a Nirvana phase he went through last year), but this set and this album are much quieter. Half of the album is downright delicate. That said, anachronistic closer "Ain't Much Time Now Left for Summer" was plenty gutsy, and the audience felt it. A planned encore of unreleased song "Rock N Roll in E (Performed in A)" continued the energy, rewarding the room that only began to empty once the band's performance ended at the stroke of midnight.

I caught up with Gum as he frantically moved his gear from the stage to the greenroom. Although he had just launched his new album to a packed room of enthusiastic fans, and he had accomplished it with a (mostly) new band playing new arrangements, he was just as frazzled as when I bumped into him two hours earlier. He was still running on adrenaline, still sweating the details, and was now apologizing for live mistakes that no one noticed. But Gum is a perfectionist, and that's just how he's wired. We can worry about his process and how it affects him, but no one can argue with the results – Daniel Gum's new album is amazing and he launched it in style.