Concert Review: Joywave at Elsewhere, Brooklyn

Immersive visuals, captivating lights and a trusted audience are the most perfect atmosphere to dive into a live show. That is exactly what Joywave presented to us during their latest concert at Brooklyn’s finest venue Elsewhere.

As an individual who wasn’t very familiar with Joywave upon their live performance, I was happily surprised and absolutely taken by their stage presence. Their undeniable passion for sound it’s something that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Joywave’s singer Daniel Armbruster did an amazing job in capturing the audience's attention at any chance he could but also without making any effort, as his own hypnotizing presence did the job from the moment he got on stage.

When looking around me, I couldn’t help but notice the feeling of nostalgia, happiness and relaxation traveling through the audience, although I was missing the extreme feeling of euphoria I’m usually used to when going to live shows.

Is it because I usually attend and listen to more “heavy” oriented music, or is it because the audience was too “polite” for my taste?

The first two rows were completely going bonkers, as even the singer remarked toward the end of the performance. The remaining room seemed to be just content enough to be there.

Note that this has nothing to do with the band’s performance, which executed every song perfectly and did their absolute best to involve the audience in their journey by even asking us to shout for their cameras and so forth. Well, the shouting wasn’t as loud as I expected and as Daniel ironically mentioned, it was probably “The best that New Yorkers could give, obviously”.

This was the before last show of their long anticipated US tour “The Cleanse Tour” with the last date being at their very hometown Rochester, NY.

Lastly, the stage set-up included the back of a car with a plate reading “Joywave” and it made absolutely sense to me, as I truly felt transported into their own dimension and I was honored to take the trip.

Listen to Joywave here.

Written by Sarah Von-H