BY JEREMY HAAS
Last November I saw one of my favorite bands play at the Talent Farm. I already wrote a blog about the great time I had, but alas, my dear blog editor Blue Kaufman forgot to edit and send it in to be posted. So here we are, four months later, I refuse to let this article go.
Joyce Manor is one of the more popular up-and-coming bands that could, in some respects, be considered punk rock. Their music sounds like high school frustrations incarnated into short, loud, and fast tracks appealing to the emotional teen in everyone. It isn’t necessarily “un-punk” to have a strong sense of angst. After all, that is pretty much all punk rock is; anger, channeled into less whiny themes than adolescent disappointment, like politics. Still, most punk rock elitists would likely reject Joyce Manor for their subject matter. Nevertheless, I absolutely love this band, and in an adolescent music scene dominated by generic pop-punk and polished culture, Joyce Manor is, if not punk, pretty close to it.
Their set list at the show was short; like their albums, like their songs, and like my attention span. Most of it consisted of tracks from their first, and more popular, self titled record. Fan favorites like “Constant Nothing” and “Call Out” were played as a rambunctious crowd stage dived, kicked, pushed, and screamed along. “Constant Headache” was, by far, the high point of their performance, as it’s their longest, most serious, and anthemic track. By the end of the song, the audience had gained control of the microphone and taken over singing the final verse. A live video on Youtube with this kind of anarchy would probably irk me, but being in the crowd and singing along to my favorite Joyce Manor song gave me a sense of belonging. What did disappoint me however was a lack of material from their sophomore album Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired, as I feel that album really gave Joyce Manor a more varied sound. Fans however, much prefer the primal, more uniform-sounding band they fell in love with.
After getting hit in the face a few times, I decided to give up on trying to look cool standing around, and go all out with the rest of the audience. In an adrenaline filled frenzy, I did notice a few things. Joyce Manor was as carefree as they were careless. Their songs progressively got sloppier, and they seemed to become less of performers and more of additions to the feral child horde of an audience. While this gave the show a friendlier feeling, turning the band I completely idolize into just another few, dumb, rowdy teenagers.
After some thought, I’ve realized that this is what most teenagers live for. Fans don’t want to go to huge venue to watch pretentious musicians stand over them like gods. No, they want to be a part of the show. It’s a much different experience to see a band in a tiny warehouse crammed with animalistic teenagers than it is to watch them perform comfortably. It’s sad that so many of the bands able to play this type of show have fairly boring music. Joyce Manor however, makes different music that sounds so passionate, and I guess that’s why I admire them so much. They are one of the few bands in the new-punk subgenre that truly stand out.
It all goes to show that these musicians aren’t some super human songwriters, but rather just a few kids who made it big. Joyce Manor is a punk band. They play fun music for a small audience, and don’t necessarily try to impress anyone. That’s what makes them so impressive.
