Joywave is a band that will always be committed to the bit. If they weren’t a band or currently on tour promoting their latest album Permanent Pleasure, they’d have a booming career as stand up comedians. Yet here we are, watching magic happen every time they step on the stage. Their tour stop in Chicago at Thalia Hall on Tuesday, September 17th was no exception.
Walking on stage wearing matching green outfits, each band member may look the same but they sure are unique and stand out in their own ways. Guitarist Joseph Morinelli stood out with his mind bending and guttural chords loudly echoing around the room, drummer Paul Brenner kept us all on beat while adding in his own flair with various cymbal crashes and the like, and singer Daniel Armbruster provided the quick quips that kept the crowd laughing between songs when he wasn’t belting out his incredibly catchy lyrics. Even touring musicians Taylor Dubray and Kevin Mahoney added to the uniqueness on stage, uplifting the band even further.
The crowd ate it up the entire night. Whether it was dancing along to the disco-esque track “He’s Back!” from their latest album, or screaming the lyrics back to “Coming Apart” from their 2020 album Possession, Chicago truly showed up. So much so that Joywave’s sound engineer James stated through the bands in-ear monitors that “they’re loud as fuck, I’ll tell ya!”
Joywave gets better with every album they release, and subsequently every tour that follows the release. They’ve aged like fine wine, and their live shows help amplify their already spectacular recorded material. There’s no telling where they will go next, but if the Permanent Pleasure Tour is any indicator, they’re going to continue going up from here.
