Sound Scene Express

Joyce Manor, The Hotelier and Crying : Behind the Lens with Zach Nellis


Joyce Manor
w/ The Hotelier
& Crying
The Rex Theater
October 24, 2016

Photos and re-cap by Zach Nellis

Last Monday the 24th marked the second time pop-punk/thrasher band, Joyce Manor destroyed a stage in Pittsburgh in the past four months. The Rex Theater on the South Side, was lucky enough to host the band along with Crying and The Hotelier. I can’t say I was surprised at the crowd for a Monday night because with a line up like that, I expected a solid turn out of fans for all three acts. Unfortunately due to a minor mix up, I missed Crying’s performance but was able to make it in right as The Hotelier was setting up.

I couldn’t help but chuckle as the dudes of The Hotelier took the stage for soundcheck. The cut off jorts seemed to get shorter and shorter as each member took their place. A few call girl whistles could be heard from the audience as they got settled. The band had some very catchy pop-punk sounding songs which were complimented perfectly with thoughtful lyrics that almost seemed to have a folk, story telling feel to them. If you get a chance to see these guys, I would highly recommend it, they not only sounded amazing but were pretty funny on stage. You can check out some tunes on their bandcamp. Just don’t do it while your mom is in the room because their most recent album has a bunch of naked old people on the cover. You’ve been warned.

Joyce Manor took the stage around 8:45 to tune up and do the last of their sound checking and got things going at 9. They definitely came out swinging too, opening with “Heart Tattoo” the crowd was instantly hooked, moshing and singing along. Despite having to stop a few times to tune instruments, Joyce was able to pack a lot of fast, energetic music into an hour. Their set list was arranged perfectly. Jumping back and forth between their shorter more aggressive songs from former albums and the lengthier, somewhat more laid back songs from their most recent album, Cody.

The crowd surfing started about halfway through the set, and didn’t stop till the show was over. It seemed like the entire crowd took their turn to get chucked on stage and turn around to jump back into the arms of their fellow comrades. The band seemed to perfectly dodge the stage divers as they came hurling in from the crowd and didn’t skip a beat. You could tell the band was feeding off the crowds energy as each song seemed to get more in-your-face and passionate than the next. The band finished up and stepped off stage for less than a minute before returning for a hectic encore. They officially closed out the night with “Constant Headache” which you could tell most of the crowd had been waiting all night for. Needless to say, Joyce Manor did not disappoint their fans.

Joyce Manor

The Hotelier

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