Thousands descended on Halifax last Tuesday to see American indie supergroup boygenius bring their world tour to the West Yorkshire town for the first of two sold out nights. Fans queued from early in the morning to grab a good spot for what turned out to be a spectacular show at the Piece Hall – one of Britain’s most unique live music venues.
Originally opened as a cloth hall in 1779, the grade II listed building has found a new lease of life in the 21st century as a breath-taking live music venue. The Piece Hall’s summer concert series hosts some of the biggest names in music with the likes of Sting, Hozier, and Johnny Marr playing in Halifax this summer. This week it was the turn of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus – collectively known by their recently adopted moniker boygenius – to grace Halifax’s biggest stage with back-to-back sell out shows.
With the Yorkshire moors looming intimidatingly over the open-air venue, it fell to American singer-songwriter Ethel Cain to open the show. Cain’s music can be relatively introspective and quiet, but she adopted the unenviable task of warming up a crowd of superfans with relative ease, keeping the audience captivated with her impressive voice and powerful performance.
The band’s set kicks off with a bang; starting with a backstage rendition of the a capella ‘Without You Without Them’ and jumping straight into the fast-paced ‘$20’, boygenius set the tone early. The band’s ability to balance the breathless rock’n’roll of fan favourites like ‘Not Strong Enough’ and ‘Satanist’ with the poignant moments that come on the band’s more introspective tracks makes a boygenius show an emotional rollercoaster: gut-wrenching at times but certainly worth the pay off.
After a fast-paced first half hour, the set’s most emotional moment comes with ‘Letter To An Old Poet’. It’s a song about leaving an abusive relationship and when Bridgers asks fans to put their phones away in order to “look at you in the face while I sing it”, the song’s themes hit harder than usual.
Impressive as it is that boygenius have been able to sell out venues the world over on the back of one album (and an EP), the band’s relatively small discography struggles to fill a 90-minute set. Some of the individual members’ solo music filled the gaps in the setlist left after they had exhausted all of boygenius’ recorded music, as well as the as-yet-unreleased outtake ‘boyfriend’.
Three or four interruptions in response to medical situations in the crowd disrupt the flow of the set somewhat, but it is nevertheless refreshing to see artists taking the time to look after audiences in a post-Astroworld landscape. The interruptions also allow for a bit of banter between the band and the crowd, jokes about Halifax’s status as the lesbian capital of the UK, and condolences offered to the owner of a sign reading “my fish just died”. It’s clear that unlike some (Ahem, Alex Turner) boygenius do not see themselves as too cool to chat to their audiences despite their skyrocketing popularity.
Each member of the band leads off a track, each of their voices and stage personalities powerful, emotional, and yet unique. Phoebe Bridgers is quickly approaching superstar status as a solo artist and while it could be easy to see the band simply as ‘Bridgers & Co.’, each member of boygenius brings something to their music, a fact made starkly obvious to anyone lucky enough to attend one of their live shows.
Baker’s exceptional guitar chops shine on ‘Not Strong Enough’ at the end of the set, while Bridgers and Dacus indulge in some crowd surfing. The closer provides a joyous end to a show that had put fans through the emotional ringer.
Photos via Cuffe and Taylor / The Piece Hall