Joyce Manor have been very kind to NYC this past year. They chose Central Park as one of the very few locations that they played their self-titled debut LP in full for its 10th anniversary last September, then opened for The Story So Far at Terminal 5 in April, and then they returned for a headlining show at Brooklyn Steel on Friday (8/12) as part of their tour supporting this year's 40 oz. to Fresno. And every time they come, the venues are full of diehard fans and the crowds go off. They're a band who always leaves you wanting more, and we just can't seem to get enough of them.
Their last time in NYC, they'd only just released Fresno's lead single "Gotta Let It Go," but this time they played five of the album's nine songs, and the new stuff fit right in with the longtime fan faves and kept the energy as high as the rest of the setlist. With songs as short as theirs, they squeezed 25 songs into a set that lasted less than an hour, including a five-song encore (the longest song they played was probably their Murder City Devils cover), and they touched on tracks from all over their decade-plus career, from the very early days of "Chumped" and "House Warning Party" to more recent stuff like "Big Lie" and "Stairs" (the latter of which hadn't been played yet on this tour), and of course tons of the self-titled and Never Hungover Again. (The only era they didn't touch on was Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired.) As always, Joyce Manor sped through every song with both a try-hard urgency and a carefree attitude, like they're just living in the moment and never too rehearsed but also impossibly tight. Like their records, their live show hits a sweet spot that you kinda can't get from any other band, and that's why every time you see them feels just as exciting as the last.