Modern Baseball played House of Blues – 6/23

Emo revival luminaries Modern Baseball headlined a massive show at House of Blues last week, with support from California’s Joyce Manor and their Philly neighbors Thin Lips. 

I generally count myself as a casual fan of the emo/pop-punk stylings that bands like Modern Baseball are bringing back to the forefront of guitar rock. I was unfamiliar with Modern Baseball themselves until this year, though I quite enjoy their new record Holy Ghost. I do have one older Joyce Manor LP residing in my iTunes, loaned from a long-since ex, but it’s possible that I’ve never heard the whole thing. I was probably the only person at this show for whom any of this was the case.

A packed audience on the floor of the nearly sold-out room responded to both bands with astonishingly boundless enthusiasm, and even the relative newcomers in Thin Lips were treated like seasoned rockstars. Each band delivered a heart-on-sleeve performance, and they were met with an equivalent response. It was the sort of show where a breathless and unabashed devotion to the music from all parties involved was constantly on display, and that’s a heartening thing to watch. Galleries below.