By Erik Casarez
After releasing their seventh studio album I Used to go to This Bar, Joyce Manor announced they would be going on tour this spring. This March, the band brought their tour to Stubb’s.
The air was cool yet comfortable as night took over; it was the perfect weather to jump around and sing at such a high-energy four-band tour stop at Stubb’s. Combat, Teen Mortgage and Militarie Gun set the stage, but Joyce Manor closed it down with a show that reinforced their continuously budding appeal even after almost nearly two decades.
Baltimore’s Combat opened up with straight-eighth power chord choruses and occasional upstroke verses that would make even the most curmudgeon of old heads tap their toes. The band sounds like some kind of Gen Z Jeff Rosenstock, combining elements of punk, alternative and ska into a smorgasbord of pop punk goodness. Combat wears their influences on their sleeve and yet still manages to harbor their own sound. Their live show was loud, fast, incredibly fun and the best way to start off the show.
Teen Mortgage followed with the same energy albeit a pivot in sound. The duo also plays loud and fast, but pop melody morphs into aggression. They are reminiscent of bands like Dead Boys (or even The Germs) with a tinge of 2010s garage rock and hardcore…–maybe even a little surfy at times. The combination borders the unconventional, but in practice makes sense, like old school punk with a contemporary indie edge. Teen Mortgage sounds like you owe them lunch money–and you can’t help but smile.
A cooling calm spreads over the crowd when Militarie Gun takes the stage. This band is an anachronism of alt rock sensibilities. They would fit perfectly on 90s alt rock and college radio but lingering hardcore motifs sneak up on you in a contemporary take on BritPop. Swirling guitars and soul-penetrating melodies keep the vibe going. Between their cover of “You Only Live Once” by The Strokes, the cool breeze and the stage lighting, Militarie Gun reminds me why I go to shows in the first place.
When Joyce Manor takes the stage, I realize they are my current favorite band. Joyce Manor takes inspiration from Weezer and Guided by Voices as much as Blink 182. Their latest album “I Used to Go to This Bar” is both a return to, and an evolution of, the mid 2010s legacy of the band. Very few songs are longer than three minutes–no unnecessary bridges or verses, and minimal banter. The songs end on their own terms and the effect is invigorating. At one point, they invite local legend Rory Phillips of The Impossibles on stage to perform “Wildflowers”, which he cowrote with the band.
Pop punk has a reputation for being juvenile but Joyce Manor has evolved beyond the typical themes of pizza, fart jokes, and hating one’s hometown. I Used to go to This Bar delivers a sense of maturity to a genre flooded with themes of arrested development.
It’s a testament to how studied Joyce Manor is in the history of pop punk and alternative rock; they don’t rest on the laurels of trying to sound like the pop punk bands that are selling out arenas but rather cultivating their own sound that goes beyond earworms and takes the pop punk kids who grew up with that sound into the next phase of their lives into middle age adulthood while also inspiring younger generations along for the ride. While Joyce Manor has an amazing following and the fans always show up (especially when they play in Texas), they are carving out a new path that elevates them to all new levels and sets the groundwork to turn them into the face of pop punk for years to come.
