Hoko descends, Weathers parties, Almost Monday charms

When my brother came back from his freshman year at Berkeley, he was eager to show me a short video clip he’d taken at a concert up north. “This song isn’t out yet,” he burbled, “but you’ve got to hear this synth line; it’s so cool.” The song was a little thing called “Closer” by The Chainsmokers. “The thing is, it probably won’t even sound as cool when it actually gets released,” he concluded. “But I still can’t wait.”

Remember, this was before featured singer Halsey beefed with the boys in the band, before everyone got sick of it, before it was the number one song for 12 straight weeks. This was before it was released. I’ve always thought it was cool that my brother grokked its appeal, even if he was right about the recorded version not sounding quite as good as that little snippet on his phone. And I’ve always wished that I could stumble on a future hit like that. Now, thanks to Almost Monday’s August 4 show at the Quartyard, maybe I have.

But first: Hoko! Their first-ever performance at on their first ever tour! They were excited to be there! Lead singer Nathaniel Hoho pulled the cap off his water bottle and sent plumes of liquid arcing over the crowd! Then he followed the tide and left the stage — several times! Once, he even picked up a fan, slung her over his shoulder, and spun her around! Small wonder that his energy inspired some of the younger folks in attendance to start a dance mob!

Speaking of energy: Weathers was up next, and fan Josie said it was her first time seeing them in concert, and that she loved them for their “energy and personality.” Personality check: “We’re a band about just one thing,” singer Cameron Boyer told the audience. “We just want one thing: to fuckin’ party. Can we fuckin’ party together?” I guess like likes like: Josie brought some energy and personality of her own to their performance. As Weathers sounded the very first notes of their popular number “C’est La Vie,” Josie did not merely scream with enthusiasm, she screamed with enthusiasm while jumping up and down high enough that her head kept popping into the band’s sightline, despite her considerable distance from the stage. Game recognized game as Boyer took note of Josie’s vertical: “Aw yeah, she knows this one!” By the time the set was over, both she and her friend Bryn said their nerves were shot.

I guess all the energy and jumping and dance mobbing should have served as fair warning for what was coming when Almost Monday came on stage. I like Almost Monday, for much the same reason as fan Becky: “their summer poppy vibes. You just can’t feel bad when listening to their music.” Her enthusiasm was infectious enough that she couldn’t bring herself to attend without her husband and children Liberty, Cadence, and Paxly, the last still a babe in arms. Becky was, like me, a normie. As a normie, I spend a lot of time dancing weirdly in my room to music I like in front of my mirror. (I know this is normie behavior because I have decided that it is, please do not attempt to disabuse me of this notion.) But it turned out that Almost Monday had other sorts of fans as well. Moshy sorts. Jortsy sorts. Again: I’m a normie. Maybe that’s why I had never seen jorts on women before: the absurdly wide denim legs stopping at the widest part of their comparatively wispy calves. And not just one or two: nearly every girl in that seething mass of feral teendom was sportin’ jorts.

I have no objection to jorts on women. Well, I do, but to each her own. Except when the moshing jortsters lose all sense of their surroundings and start yeeting each other out of the pit and into the open space where I am dancing weirdly in public. A young woman in the crowd got bumped so hard that she fell down into me. I found myself thinking, “I’m all for teens having fun, but…” which made me feel old. I don’t go to shows to feel old.

Happily, when the band started playing its new song “You Look So Good,” I stopped feeling old. Not just because it was insanely catchy and fun and smile-making when Dawson Daugherty started sing-songing “You look so good/ Walking your dog through the neighborhood…” But also because it brought me back to that day in early 2016, when my brother showed me that unreleased hit that he’d heard live.