Friday, July 19, 2024

Live Shows: The Greeting Committee and Toledo, The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA 7/17/24


Sometimes it's good to step out of your musical comfort zone a bit, and that's what I thought I was doing Wednesday night at The Sinclair with The Greeting Committee. The just released Everyone's Gone and I Know I'm the Cause is a little bit more poppy than I'm used to, but is still a great album. Once I got into the venue, I wasn't sure what to expect. First, the crowd was much younger and more mainstream than I'm used to. I was hardly the only attendee sporting some grey in my beard, but it was a young crowd. Plus, it was the type of crowd that was shouting along to the Chappell Roan songs in between bands, and doing the hand gesture/dances that apparently go along to the songs. Like I said, not my usual crowd for a show.

But... then the music started and none of that mattered. The Greeting Committee and quite simply a stellar live band. They were kind of like a more energetic Alvvays or a less punk Mannequin Pussy. Singer Addison Sartino is one of the most engaging frontpeople I've seen in ages, and it seemed to be her personal mission to make sure each and every person in The Sinclair was having a fantastic time. Not that she had to, because the crowd was engaged the instant they started playing. And how could they not be? Songs like "How It Goes" are just begging to be heard live. It's hard to tell if The Greeting Committee were feeding off the crowd's energy, or if the crowd was feeding off the band's. It was like an endless loop of energy and joy that just kept building off of each other. Everyone in the crowd could not have been more thrilled to have been at the show Wednesday night, and The Greeting Committee gave them plenty of reason to be.

I also feel the need to point out that despite the young age of the crowd, there was barely a cell phone out during the show. The under twenty five crowd gets far too bad of a rap when it comes to phones at shows.

Boston's Toledo opened the show as a solo act. It was just Jordan Dunn-Pilz taking the stage with a set of downbeat but not quite emo acoustic songs. His performance kept the crowd engaged throughout. It seemed like Toledo had more than a few of their own fans at the show, and definitely won some more over. If you're into earnest folk-rock songs with a mainstream leaning, you're going to want to check out Toledo.

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