Joyce Manor Brought a Night of Pop-Punk, and Emo Good Times

Howdy y’all!

We had a pretty fun night here at Varsity Theater, with a lineup of Combat, Teen Mortgage, Militarie Gun, and of course, Joyce Manor.

Opening up the night was Combat, and for me, this was a fun full circle moment, as I had taken photos of them about two years ago in Austin, TX, for one of my first real “emo” adjacent shows, so it was nice to see the band members again, and performing with much bigger bands at that!

However, unfortunately, we had some restrictions from the venue in terms of pit space, so I didn’t get to get as many shots as I wanted, but overall, the performance was worth it to see. They’re great at getting the crowd riled up and getting some fast beats to just really start jamming and moving around on stage, showing off how much fun they’re having.

Up next was Teen Mortgage, a band I hadn’t really heard much about before, but they put on a fun show. The two-piece definitely brought some good energy, but in my own opinion I think it would have made more sense for the flow of this show to have them open FOLLOWED by Combat, and honestly, the two bands collaborating on some songs would have been sick too!

Either way, they put up some good shouts, and the vocalist was absolutely drenched in sweat after, which was clear to see from how much he was really moving! Only other gripe was just that they did NOT have a lot of light on them, so a lot of the photos I ended up snapping just did not come out great in my opinion! Hopefully next time they come through its more lit!

Following up was Militarie Gun!

I thought that I hadn’t heard of them, but turns out, lo and behold, once their song “B A D I D E A” started playing, i knew!

They put on such an incredibly fun show, getting people to crowd surf, sing along, and the vocalist gave out that perfect pop punk energy that really cuts across the rest of the band, so it was a really good set. I ended up snagging a tote from the band as well, and their merch lineup was very, very nice so props to their design team as well.

Overall, a band that I would go watch headline myself, and a show that you’ve got to reciprocate the energy being given back to, as well. But very, very fun!

Finally, Joyce Manor!

Honestly, I’d been struggling with things to write for this band, and about the show just because it was such a simple and good show, and it’s kind of hard to elaborate on that, but all I will say is if you haven’t had the chance to see them live, you still gotta do it.

They played a lot of songs from their newest album, “I Used to Go to This Bar” and what was refreshing was seeing an entirely packed crowd screaming along with the band, and really getting into it right away.

A lot of their songs were, of course, short and sweet, but the tracks sound exactly like they do when recorded, which is also just awesome to hear.

The crowd was absolutely tight and packed like sardines for the record, which made trying to get any sort of crowd shot pretty difficult as well, and just trying to get to see the view, but everyone was, however, very nice! This was a good emo, post-hardcore type of show, and I had a lot of fun getting to just vibe for the whole show!