SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — If you enjoy heading out to the Levitt during the summer, you may have seen Dyer Davis and his band give a southern rock-style performance on Friday. However, the day before, they played somewhere quite different: the South Dakota State Penitentiary.
It’s not everyday that artists play inside the walls of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, but Dyer Davis and his band did exactly that on Thursday.
“We went in there, and they had us set up in the chapel and just had a really powerful experience with those guys. It was a real honor to be there for us,” Davis said.
“Performing in that state penitentiary in South Dakota was just kind of a life changing experience,” bass player Will Weiner said.
Davis says the performance was for inmates who had shown good behavior. He admits it was a little intimidating at first, but once they got going, he said it was unlike anything he and his band had ever done.
“I didn’t have any expectations at all. I figured that they would probably enjoy it, but I just wasn’t sure to what degree. We started into the first song, and I don’t know, there was just an energy, and the mood in the room was so vibrant,” Davis said.
“The fact that everybody was so grateful, and they worked really hard to be there meant a lot. We saw people singing along the songs that they’d never heard before, which just felt great,” Weiner said.
It’s a performance that Davis won’t soon forget.
“We’re all human beings, man, and sometimes, regardless of what’s going on, it’s always most important to love one another,” Davis said.
Giving inmates hope for the future.
Staff at the Levitt helped make the performance happen. For more information on Davis and his band, click here.
