Current Joys

Current Joys is a concert I really didn’t expect to go to, as normally I’m not a huge fan of it. However, this concert definitely changed that for me. They are such a relaxed band with a relaxed sound, I couldn’t help but feel calm even in the high-energy performance atmosphere. The band was extremely kind and very interactive with the audience. In fact, one of the friends I went with was able to get close enough to the stage to give them Valentine’s Day cards that they opened and thanked them for during the show.

This concert was at Fine Line, which is immediately a plus, so the venue was cozy, but not too cozy. The audience at this one was a little pushy, and I ended up standing near one of the exit doors on the right side of the stage from the entrance, but I ended up getting a nearly unobstructed view, so it didn’t matter to me all that much that I was a little cramped.

Since it was on Valentine’s Day, the band made a lot of jokes about love. For instance, after a song was played, the lead singer would go: “that song was about love… and this next song is also about love, but a sad one.” He would joke like that periodically throughout the show, and it never got old. They spend a good amount of time thanking the audience for being there and giving genuine life advice about finding yourself and finding real love. It was so refreshing.

Their music in essence is sad bedroom pop. It’s so painfully sad most of the time. The songs are all very longing or nostalgic many times, and they resonated with the audience so hard. It was such a gratifying experience to be able to be in a room of people that feel the same way you do about the music you’re listening to. It’s the kind of music that you would listen to after a bad night, driving with the windows down in the dark. 

Some of my favorite songs by them are ‘Blondie’ (Album Wild Hearts, 2013) ‘Become the Warm Jets,’ and ‘A Different Age’ (Both from the album A Different Age, 2018). They are so gut-wrenchingly sad, and you really just need that sometimes. Someone in the audience shouted: “You saved me,” and without skipping a beat the lead singer said, “No, you saved me.” He then went on to play ‘A Different Age.’ Hearing the entire audience come together to very softly sing one of their most memorable songs was magical to me. They don’t sound too much like their studio recordings live, but that doesn’t matter much to me.

The one thing I will say I had a problem with was the merch. I like to pick up a shirt from every concert I go to, but they didn’t have any size bigger than a large when I went to the merch table before the show. It was disappointing, to say the least, however, you can get the tour merch on their website since they were so under-stocked for the show. 

Other than the merch issue, the whole experience was great. A couple of people even started moshing, which wasn’t remotely appropriate for the style of music. However, it was a little funny. If they tour again, I would definitely give them a go. Furthermore, if you ever feel miserably sad, I would definitely put a couple of their songs on your sad playlist.