PHOTOS: JARED PERRY | It’s going to be hard avoiding “hospitality” puns in this review. The band was just so damn nice and inviting. Most headliners hang out backstage, waiting to rock their fans’ faces off, but not Hospitality. They were on a mission to be just another three people at a show in Cleveland—they just happened to be headlining the show, too.
Before the show even began, they walked around Coventry, checking out the neighborhood around the Grog Shop. They ate together as a band at Chipotle (I thought this was a dining mistake, but they never asked me restaurant suggestions). During the opening acts, they hung out in the back of the crowd or at the bar almost the entire time.
At one point, Greta Kline, the lead singer of opening act Frankie Cosmos, invited all the members of the other opening band, Porches (where Kline also plays bass), and Hospitality on stage with her to play the last song. Musically, it was a terrible idea. Ten people played a song most of them probably didn’t really know.
Toward the end, Kline yelled, “Everybody solo!” and they all did exactly that, creating a noise that was the audio equivalent of having 100 kindergarteners draw on one sheet of paper. But Hospitality didn’t mind obliging, and that wasn’t the point anyway. They cared about fun and they cared about inclusion.
There was a weird feeling of sentimentality from all the bands throughout the night. It was the second to last show of the tour, and each band talked about how much they would miss being on tour together. Amber Papini, Hospitality’s front woman, focused her banter mostly on how sad she was the tour was ending. At one point, Kline yelled from the crowd, “Miss you already!” That provoked genuine smiles from the entire band. It was evident from the way all the bands interacted that they were friends who truly enjoyed their tour together.
This sense of melancholy stood in contrast to Hospitality’s actual set. Nobody would ever mistake this twee-pop band for a hardcore band, but the live versions of their songs rocked much harder than their album equivalents. Brian Betancourt’s bass grooved on every song except for “Last Words” where he deftly played a drum machine instead. Musically, he was the highlight of the show, which is no surprise since Hospitality’s last album, Trouble, was built around his intricate bass lines.
The songs off of Trouble really shined. Those songs were written with more musical interludes than their vocal-driven, self-titled first album, and the band used those interludes to expand on the songs instrumentally. Every band member got a chance to solo.
Papini noodled at her guitar on several occasions, displaying more talent on the guitar than I thought she had going into the show. Not that her guitar work is trash on the albums, but here the arrangements gave her room to show off a little where she couldn’t on a more focused studio recording. They were without tour guitarist David Christian, who they maybe jokingly, or maybe seriously, said had to go to a wedding, but Papini picked up the slack nicely.
Papini was also very good at fronting the band. She had a cool look with a mid-length black skirt, ripped black stockings, a black leather jacket, jet-black hair, black witch boot, and bright red lipstick. She dropped the fake British accent from the albums almost completely, which was a welcome surprise.
Other than some added distortion on the guitars, one reason Hospitality rocked way more in person was drummer Nathan Michel. His drums tended to be pushed way down in the mix on the albums, but he was unleashed in a live setting. His drums were propellant and at times bombastic. I don’t know if they considered loud drums with a lot of presence against their aesthetic, but I would love to have him higher in the mix on future albums. He sounded great here.
The only drawback of the night was a lone rebel microphone that was creating constant feedback through the speakers. Kline tried to fix it during her opening set, saying it was “maybe the snare mic,” but the hiss continued throughout the whole show. Thankfully, it wasn’t all that noticeable during louder songs, but it was there and it was annoying. Each band tried to mess with it at some point to no avail.
Even with that small misstep, Hospitality was good live and showed a side of them that was different from what I expected. I knew they’d be fun, but they also showed off a musicianship I didn’t realize they had. It was a new side to the band I was happy to hear. I expected an evening of subdued arrangements and upbeat banter and instead got heavier arrangements and sentimental banter.
That may have been the opposite of my expectations, but it was just as good.
