Jeff Rosenstock is a household name in the New York area, particularly in Brooklyn. Touring in support of his new record, POST—, he sold out his Warsaw date so fast that another needed to be added. In his thirties, Jeff has fans both older and younger. Teens crowded the front row, pressing their bodies against the barricade to be as close as possible. Their eyes were on the band as they set up, smiles slowly creeping up their faces and eyes widening.
Before the band made their official entrance, the Foo Fighters’ “The Best of You” boomed over the speakers with only one line on repeat: “the best.” The entire audience chorused those words at the top of their lungs, fists pumping, invisibly puncturing the air.
Tearing into “USA,” POST—‘s first full track, the mayhem immediately began.
A Jeff Rosenstock show is like one collective headbang. The crowd sways and undulates back and forth like a wave with the force of fans crowdsurfing, jumping, pushing, and shoving. Beer dribbles down chins and over the mouths of metal cans in the midst of cheers while heads furiously nod to the beat, hair swinging like violent vines. Sweat beads across foreheads, bleeding down into soaked shirts. Rosenstock himself is a direct participant, a man of nonstop movement who spends more time in the air than he does with his feet planted on the ground.
The majority of the setlist consisted of both POST— and 2016’s WORRY. Every song was sung in unison, both band and crowd uniting in perfect harmony.
Towards the end, during “We Begged 2 Explode,” Rosenstock grabbed the mic and jumped into the pit, making his way down the front row where his youngest, most elated fans were located. He was not only singing to them, but with them. Their eyes sparkled while their grins shone in the light. They were hurriedly taking selfies and videos, excitedly waiting for Rosenstock to come to their particular spot.
At one point, Rosenstock suddenly disappeared. Everyone looked at each other in confusion. From the back of the crowd, there was a lot of noise and a brief clamor, causing the audience to turn around. Rosenstock had somehow gotten to the balcony in the very back of the venue by the front doors, saxophone in hand as he began to play. The crowd roared, and did so a few moments later, when Rosenstock jumped in and joined them, surfing on the weight of their hands.
Making his exit soon after, Rosenstock left the audience wanting more. That wasn’t a problem, however; many of them, as exhibited by a show of hands, were returning to see Rosenstock again the following night.
Pop can sometimes feel like an afterthought in the rock and country-saturated musical landscape of Nashville, but Thursday night’s show at the East Room made it clear that Nashville’s pop scene is anything but marginal. POP MONSTER (a dual release party for local artists Whoa Dakota and Athena, hosted by Popsquad) showed that pop in Nashville is as varied and exciting as the people involved can imagine it to be. Four artists with unique takes on the different shapes pop can take proved what the Nashville pop scene is truly capable of: churning out emotionally nuanced and stylistically ambitious bangers.
Meaux opened the evening strong with her sensual electro-pop, a fusion of soulful and experimental sounds that provided an effortlessly changing landscape for her rich voice to traverse. Her powerful pipes and impressive dance moves energized the room as she stalked the stage in a split length red cape. Color-shifting gauzy lights set the tone in the room, a cozy dream cave that looked as if it had been styled by the collective efforts of Prince and the Little Prince. Between sets the alchemy in the room was maintained through a mixture of 90’s throwbacks and electro-pop, the dreamy vibes in the room conducted by the cotton candy stellariums (made by Athena) hovering moodily above the crowd.
Next was Soren Bryce, a Brooklyn local who’s no stranger to the Nashville music scene. Soren’s writing and performance seems to transform to keep up with the rapid pace of her own ever-expanding taste. It’s a testament to how talented Soren is that she can take a left turn away from the fantastic music on her last unreleased EP (largely synth-based) to the more guitar-centric rock we heard on Thursday—and accomplish it so effortlessly. Clearly there’s no genre of music that Soren can’t master, as demonstrated by her fantastic set: a grungy pop punk watercolor that borrowed from Kurt Cobain, Lorde, Joe Jackson, Elliot Smith and Fiona Apple without ever losing its own distinctive style. Soren’s varied influences find her a sound all her own, as well as a gravity at the mike that holds the center of any room she’s playing for. The thread that weaves through her stylistic choices is always her voice, melodic with an expansive range that she wielded precisely like a scalpel to cut through the colorful fog in the venue.
Soren Bryce by Rhea Foote
Athena played third in a powerhouse performance that you’d never know was her debut effort. She was right at home in front of an audience, prowling the stage in silver spandex like a modern day Xenon, an early 2000s fever dream kicking through pink fog clouds in Adidas stripes. Athena approached her performance with a fierce vulnerability, swinging from charm to rage to melancholy in a way that always felt authentic. She brought the crowd into her circle of trust and pulled them along for her journey—and despite (or because of) the emotional depth each song was catchier than the next, equal parts Paramore and Nelly Furtado, Athena bopping around the stage with her heart in her hands. If this was only her first show, I’d recommend showing up for Athena’s second show.
When Jesse Ott aka Whoa Dakota took the stage, she wasn’t afraid to own the space, immediately splaying herself out on the attached runway while the crowd encircled her. The show also served as a release party for the new single “Right Now” off of her upcoming album “Patterns,” but she saved that for the end of the show, satisfying the audience in the lead-up with her electrifying and adventurous performance. Her bold, anthemic sound imbued all of her songs with an epic energy, getting the crowd dancing and hollering along with her as she navigated the room in her floral bodysuit. It had the feel of a good block party—the raucous happiness, variety, community energy. Whoa Dakota delivered with their surprise guests, hauling Alanna Royalle and Jung Youth out of the crowd to sing and rap respectively alongside her, with Robert Gay joining on trumpet and Anthony Jorissen on sax. During “Patterns,” the hit for which a music video recently came out, it seemed like the whole room was bellowing all the words alongside her. The show’s joyful climax was a surprise birthday celebration for Ott’s 28th birthday, including a rendition of the birthday song led by friends from Pet Envy and Molly Rocket, and punctuated by an amazing display of cupcakes this reviewer found to be delicious.
by brandon de la cruz
Whoa Dakota’s ambitious, ecstatic performance was the perfect series of exclamation points on which to end the evening. Each performer showcased a different side of pop music and played to the infinite potential within Nashville’s nuanced pop scene. It was especially heartening to see a fantastic, well-executed show that just happened to be led both in front of and behind the scenes by female talent. Without billing itself as a girl power show, POP MONSTER reminded us that there’s a surplus of talented women with vision leaving their marks on the Nashville music scene—and with shows this collaborative and joyful, we should definitely be supporting that.
On the night of Friday May 7th, Modest Mouse kicked off the summer season at Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, MO with a visually stimulating – and otherwise utterly incredible – performance. Although the crowd was a bit riled up by the time they took the stage, slightly later than was expected – the sound was still being tweaked early in the performance -, which simply built up the excitement for the performance even more. As soon as the band started to assemble on stage, the crowd stood up and lost their minds, and rightfully so.
Bathed in vibrant lighting and smoke, the band was wildly entertaining through a large catalogue of their music, rendering the breezy, warm evening the perfect beginning to summer. A venue that sees a lot of polite, seated crowds was able to experience an energy unlike any I’ve seen in a while, the majority of concert-goers going wild with each new song that played. “King Rat”, “Float On”, “Shit In Your Cut”, “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes”, the list goes on. It was a night made for memories, enhanced by the alt rock we’ve come to know and love since Modest Mouse’s conception in 1993.
If you’re looking for a fun upcoming event, check out the band at Sasquatch! Music Festival Memorial Day Weekend in Quincy, WA. Keep up with Modest Mouse here.
On May 3rd, K.Flay headlined The Truman in Kansas City, MO. The warehouse was filled to the brim, as she performed in her quintessentially endearing way to a sold out crowd.
In the beginning, there was one person and one instrument. A man named Chris Carrabba wielded an acoustic guitar and managed to permeate the punk and emo scenes with his raw, lyrical candor. There were EPs, there were LPs. The second of those, The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, scored Carrabba an MTV hit with the track “Screaming Infidelities.” And from there, his career exploded into full-fledged fame.
Dashboard Confessional later expanded. On Carrabba’s third LP, A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar, a full band was added, each instrument joining together to fill out his signature sound. The unparalleled strength of his voice was further heightened with this new musical intensity. Carrabba sings with such remarkable power and abandon, a hybrid of passion and fury that’s unmatched in his peers. He manages to hold notes for astonishingly long moments and can sing about love in hushed, delicate tones in the same breath as he can betrayal, unleashing the full force of his voice into an evocative wail. Simply put, Carrabba makes you feel, and he does so with a seeming effortlessness that enthusiastically resonates with his listeners. As Dashboard Confessional hasn’t stopped releasing records since their inception, Carrabba’s begun a veritable collection of fans, hoarding more and more of them with each successive release. His audience has now become intergenerational, and with Dashboard’s latest release, Crooked Shadows, it’s sure to speak to a new crop of teenagers while still delighting the fans who have been there since the beginning.
Embarking on a tour of comparatively smaller venues to promote Crooked Shadows, those who were lucky enough to score tickets to the sold-out show in New York piled into a packed Brooklyn Steel on March 29th. Fans rushed into the venue in swarms, making a fervent beeline to the floor in order to be as close to the stage as possible.
Carrabba walked out in his truest form, alone with his acoustic guitar. He asked if he could “play a deep cut,” to which everyone cheered as he launched into “This Bitter Pill,” the last track on the aforementioned The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most. When that ended, the rest of the band came out as they amped it up for “Don’t Wait,” off Dusk and Summer. The night was a family reunion. Carrabba vividly expressed his gratitude over and over again, not only thankful to be able to play music for a living, but to his fans, who allow him to do so. They responded wildly, their reaction signifying that the feeling was mutual.
Carrabba curated a setlist made up of songs off Crooked Shadows combined with some of his greatest hits from years past. Saving the best for last, Carrabba ended with three fan favorites: “Screaming Infidelities,” “Stolen,” and “Vindicated.” “Hands Down,” of course, made up the encore, leaving the crowd on the highest, most ecstatic note possible.
The future continues to shine on Dashboard Confessional.
On April 25th, the ever-incredible Houndmouth made an impressive and memorable appearance at Historic Scoot Inn in Austin, Texas. Photographer Erica Tello captured the ambiance for us.
No Coast Criminals brought street punk to Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines on March 28th. Wrapping up a Midwest tour, the band unleashed their Oi! styling on a lively crowd. Keep up with them here.
Lincoln, Nebraska’s Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal played a late show at Winter Blues Fest in Des Moines on February 10. The band, which tours extensively, has won several blues and R&B/soul awards.
