B-Side Guys

Highways offer the illusion of progress when everything else feels stationary. Chicago’s Socially Acceptable captures this perfectly on “Exit,” a track that transforms literal road trip descriptions into meditation on persistence through uncertainty. The five-piece band, evolved from University of Illinois fraternity basement covers to original songwriting during 2020’s forced isolation, delivers their most cohesive statement yet about keeping moving when the destination remains unclear.

The blues-influenced foundation provides perfect vehicle for the song’s patient optimism. Luke Luhrsen’s vocals carry the conversational quality of someone working through problems while driving, while Dominic DeAngelis’s lead guitar and Ernie Santeralli’s piano create the kind of musical landscape that makes long stretches of interstate feel purposeful. Michael Leszczynski’s bass and Alex Panayiotou’s drums maintain steady momentum that mirrors the track’s central metaphor about forward motion as form of faith.

Lyrically, the band constructs a geography of endurance. The specific route from “Sioux Falls to Jackson Hole” grounds the universal struggle in recognizable Midwestern territory, while phrases like “tapping the beat out to the sound” suggest how music provides structure during periods of psychological drift. The repeated acknowledgment of being “tired, still I try” captures the specific exhaustion of maintaining hope without clear evidence it’s justified.

The track’s most compelling insight arrives in its recognition that movement alone constitutes victory. Rather than promising arrival at specific destination, “Exit” celebrates the commitment to continue despite fatigue. The progression from individual struggle (“I’m tired”) to collective effort (“we’re tired but we gotta try”) suggests how shared persistence makes individual doubt more manageable.

Their self-described “groovy little road trip tune” works whether windows are up or down, in cars or out of them, because it understands that sometimes the most important journey happens in the decision to keep going rather than in reaching any particular exit sign.