Mt. Joy Concert Recap

For those who don’t already know, I am a huge fan of live music. I love going to different venues, seeing new artists, and just getting to dance to my favorite songs live with other people who enjoy concerts as much as I do. With that being said, my bank account definitely does not appreciate my love for live music so going to a concert for me is usually a once or twice a year thing depending on the ticket prices of shows. However, this year I was lucky enough to go to two concerts, one of them being this past Thursday! I saw the band Mt. Joy perform at The Strand Ballroom and theater in Providence, Rhode Island and I absolutely adored the experience and am so excited to tell you all about it. So without further ado, here’s my very first concert review!

First, I feel the need to explain what kind of band Mt. Joy is. My mom would describe them as a Jam Band but I like to describe them as “granola.” “Granola” music is the kind of music you would listen to on a hike in the woods wearing your Carhart beanie and LLBean boots while snacking on a Nature Valley granola bar (the crunchy kind obviously). A more popular band I like to compare Mt. Joy to is the Lumineers, whom I also adore. This type of band is definitely an acquired taste for some people and I’ve found that you either love it or hate it. However, with that being said I also dragged my roommate and friend Ava to the show with me. Now Ava is not the biggest Mt. Joy fan (or granola music fan) but she does appreciate live music and after some light convincing, she agreed to go with me. Even as someone who doesn’t necessarily love that style of music, Ava agreed that they put on a very good show and said that she had fun which in my eyes, is a success story.

Now onto the actual night itself. As for the drive to the venue, it was super easy and stress-free. I live about 30 minutes from Providence during the school year which is a huge plus. The doors opened for the concert at 8:00 p.m. so leaving by 7:15 gave us plenty of time to find parking and get ourselves situated. Parking was also a breeze as well. There was a parking garage only a block away from the venue so we were able to get in and out of Providence in record time.

If we had standing-room-only tickets, I would have definitely gotten to the venue earlier to get a good spot in the pit but we actually had front row mezzanine tickets. And while this sounds like it would be far away, it was actually the perfect view. Since the theater is so small, the mezzanine is right above the stage. This meant I was able to see the entire stage and every band member perfectly for the entire performance. The only downside I will say about the higher section is that the crowd up there was a lot more chill than the general admission floor crowd. I’m personally someone who loves to dance and jump around at shows so the chiller crowd made it pretty difficult to do that without feeling extremely out of place and awkward. However, this did not stop me from having an amazing time at the show.

So Amy Allen opened for the band and she went on at 9:00 p.m. I have never heard of her before this show but something that I didn’t realize is that I listened to her songs all the time. In the car on the way to the show, Ava looked her up and apparently she has written songs for artists like Halsey, Harry Styles, and Selena Gomez which I thought was super cool. During her set, she even sang Without You by Halsey and sounded incredible. The only somewhat negative thing I have to say is that during some parts of her set, it was extremely difficult to hear her over the instruments. She later told the audience that she was having technical difficulties with her mic so the situation obviously wasn’t her fault. Regardless, I loved her energy, and Ava and I both agreed that her outfit was amazing. Amy was someone I probably would have never listened to before this show but am so glad that I got introduced to her music!

Now onto the main act. You know when you see an artist perform live for the first time and afterwards you get a newfound appreciation for the songs? Thats what happened to me and Mt. Joy. Not only was this my first ever small venue concert, but it was also the first-ever “granola” band I’ve seen live. They opened the show with the song I’m Your Wreck and I was in awe of how good they sounded live. There are some artists out there who either lip sync or just use autotune in their songs but I can promise you that Mt. Joy does not. Matt Quinn, the lead singer of the band, has such a raw and natural sounding voice that in my opinion, sounds better live than on the song recordings. And I can only name a handful of artists that I say that about.

The band’s energy was also so fun to watch on stage. Throughout the show, Quinn would be going up to each of his bandmates during the interludes and endings of songs and dance and sing with them. Specifically he would do this with drummer Sotiris Eliopoulos and Bassist Michael Byrnes since both of them were on a small platform and couldn’t really move around. This was such a great way to make sure that the audience appreciated every member of the band and it was awesome to see them all interacting on stage. There was one point in the show during the end of the song Let Loose where electric guitarist Sam Cooper had a solo moment with pianist Jackie Miclau and it was honestly probably in my top three moments of the night. Both Miclau and Cooper are so talented and watching them play with no vocals in front of them really showed that. I also am all for girl power so when I saw Miclau take the stage I got a little extra excited.

One thing that Mt. Joy did that I was not expecting them to do was play unreleased music. Quinn explained to the crowd that the band has been working on songs for their upcoming new album and decided to play three at the show. The three songs were Phenomenon, Evergreen, and Lemon Tree and let me tell you, when these songs are released I will be playing them on repeat. They were so fun and a very good mix of the upbeat/chill/vibey style that Mt. Joy has to them.

I think that my favorite songs of the night have to be when they played Sheep, Astrovan, and Silver Lining. All of these have one thing in common in that I can scream them at the top of my lungs. I am in no means someone who stays quiet during a concert. There are actually several videos of me at several different concerts singing so loud that you cannot hear the performer. This was no different for Mt. Joy and for a girl who doesn’t drink or smoke, I was screaming “if it’s the drugs, the women, the wine, the weed” pretty freaking loud. And it seems as though I wasn’t the only one who thought this too because the entire crowd was screaming the songs back at the band. This may sound cheesy but whenever the musician lets the audience sing and you can hear the cohesion and love for the music in everyones voice, it really gives the songs a whole new feel. At the end of the song Astrovan, they ended up cutting the music and letting the crowd sing the last line and I literally got chills down my whole body. In my friend group, I’m the only one who really listens to Mt.Joy and the songs definitely don’t get played on aux, so hearing hundreds of people scream sing and dance along to it was such a cool and heartwarming experience.

Also, side note: The lights for the show were absolutely epic. They had lasers, spotlights, colored lights, honeycomb lights, and strobe lights all going off at once to the beat of each song. Every light sequence was perfect for the given song and added so much to the performance. This was definitely “not an epileptic-friendly concert” as Ava said, but it was still so fun.

After the concert ended, Ava and I drove 45 minutes back home to the closest 24 hour McDonald’s because the only right way to end a concert night is with McNuggets. We then proceeded to wait for (and I’m not exaggerating when I say this) another 45 minutes to place our order and get our food. Ava was definitely getting antsy in the car but we passed the time by listening to Joshua Bassett’s new EP (which is a subject for another post). By the time we got home and got washed up and in bed it was 1:30 a.m. and I was exhausted. However, I did somehow manage to get up for my 9 a.m. class the next day (reread that last sentence mom).

If I could relive this night, I would do it a thousand times. I loved every second of the concert and had so much fun dancing listening to my favorite songs. I also had so much fun with Ava who fully did not have to come to the show with me, but did anyway because she is the best. Ava, I appreciate you so much. I know that the next time Mt. Joy comes to town, I will be at their show.

I hoped you guys like this week’s post! I was so excited to write about it and to the few people who follow me who also love Mt. Joy send me a message and let’s be friends! I also want to let you all know that next week is the start of finals week for my school. I have five assignments all due on Monday and am currently very overwhelmed so this is my PSA saying that next week I am most likely not going to be posting a blog piece. School always comes first for me so with that being said taking a week to buckle down on finals is a priority for me.

I hope you all have a lovely two weeks!

- Meg

P.s. Here are some of the photos from the concert! the first two are photos of Mt. Joy performing (first one was taken by Ava), the third is a photo of The Strand Theater sign, and the fourth is a photo of what I wore to the show (I had to give you guys a fit check!) Also I'm trying out a new way of displaying the photos so please let me know if you hate it.