Plain White T's

Plain White T's formed in Villa Park, Illinois in 1997 and spent years developing a sound that sat comfortably between pop, rock, and the acoustic-driven singer-songwriter tradition. Their commercial breakthrough came with "Hey There Delilah," written by frontman Tom Higgenson for a friend, which spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2006 after a years-long slow build through word of mouth before radio discovered it. The song's simple instrumentation — just a voice and an acoustic guitar — made it an outlier on the mid-2000s alternative rock chart and demonstrated that the era's appetite for loud production had limits.

The band has released a steady stream of albums since their breakthrough, including Big Bad World (2008), Wonders of the Younger (2010), and multiple subsequent records, building a catalog that rewards listeners who come looking for more than the hit they already know. As a touring band they are professional and consistent, and joining Yellowcard and New Found Glory on the Up Up Down Down Tour puts them in a context that highlights exactly how much strong songwriting the pop-punk and pop-rock underground of the 2000s actually produced.