Some bands have you falling in love again every time you see them, and Joyce Manor are one of those bands. They brought their Never Hungover Again 10th anniversary tour to NYC for a sold-out show at Brooklyn Steel last night (12/8), it was pretty much everything you’d want from an anniversary tour for a classic album. Joyce Manor had the same sharp urgency that they had when Never Hungover Again first came out, but this time around the crowds were over twice as big and just about every person yelled along to just about every word in the way you only can when the music is embedded in your DNA. The night was fueled by a sense of nostalgia but it never felt like living in the past. It felt like celebrating a great album that hasn’t aged one bit, with everyone living in the moment right now. Most importantly of all, it was just really fucking fun. If I sound like I’m overhyping it or leaning too far into my personal biases, I don’t care, because Joyce Manor are the kind of band that make me want to do those things. The energy in the room last night was critic-proof.
Joyce Manor had the a massive version of the iconic Never Hungover Again album artwork (a photo of Joyce Manor bassist Matt Ebert and Hop Along singer/guitarist Frances Quinlan) hanging behind them, and they kicked off the show the same way the album begins, dropping you right into the deep end with “Christmas Card.” The album never has a lull in energy and neither did Joyce Manor’s performance of it. It was just one banger after the next.
Before playing the album’s “most pop punk song” (singer Barry Johnson’s words) “Heart Tattoo,” the same song that Mark Hoppus played with them at the Hollywood Palladium stop of this tour, Barry (who was wearing an Ergs! shirt at the show) spoke about the influence of The Ergs!, who opened last night’s show and will also open tonight’s (12/9) Boston show. “It was really, really fucking unfashionable to play pop punk in 2008” (the year Joyce Manor formed), he said on stage. “We had kinda just left the blink-182/Fall Out Boy years, and we were kinda heading into this, like, MGMT world, so the idea of starting a pop punk band was fucking insane. But there was one band that we–Matt and I, especially–fucking loved, and they were called The Ergs!. We were like, ‘You know, if this band can put out a fucking banger pop punk record in 2008, maybe we can put out a mediocre one.’ That’s what we’ve been trying to do ever since. Anyway, we fucking love The Ergs!, and we’re so fucking amped to be playing with the fucking Ergs!. This song goes out to them.”
The Ergs!, who broke up for many years and now play the occasional reunion show, specifically made the kind of raw, fast, no-frills pop punk that echoed bands like the Ramones and the Descendents and the peak Lookout! Records era, and their more defiantly-underground version of pop punk helped set the tone for bands like Joyce Manor, who were always too indie rock to even be associated with the “underground pop punk revival” that took place as Joyce Manor were taking off. (Another band that helped set the tone for them was Toys That Kill, who Joyce Manor released a split with in 2014 and who opened the Anaheim show of this tour.) The Ergs!’ rare set at Brooklyn Steel was as short, fast, and addictive as you’d hope, with plenty of 2004’s classic dorkrockcorkrod, as well as material from what Mikey Erg self-deprecatingly called “our much-maligned second album,” 2007’s Upstairs/Downstairs, and a “new” song that The Ergs! wrote 20 years ago but shelved until now. The Ergs! were clearly happy to be there; Mikey said “this is a dream lineup for me” and said “Never Hungover Again is one of my favorite albums of all time.”
The dream lineup Mikey spoke of also included Algernon Cadwallader, whose last tour before breaking up was also opening for Joyce Manor, and whose guitarist Joe Reinhart recorded Never Hungover Again. Barry said on stage that the list of bands they wanted to open this tour was one band long, Algernon Cadwallader, and once Algernon said they could do it, everything was in motion for this tour to actually happen. (He also said their manager convinced them to pick just five cities to play the album in, and that ended up being Anaheim, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Boston, and Chicago.) Algernon reunited in 2022 after being broken up for a decade and played two of their own big Brooklyn shows, but I hadn’t seen them since that very tour with Joyce Manor 12 years ago, which had its Brooklyn stop at the now-defunct, 150-ish-person venue Acheron. Prior to that, I’d only ever seen Algernon play on the floor, surrounded by a circle of about 100 or 200 people, and it was pretty amazing to see them spread out on a big stage for a big crowd that was full of people who were clearly just as ready to bounce around and crowd surf and sing along to Algernon as they were to Joyce Manor. Just like the Never Hungover Again set, the Algernon set (which was all material from roughly 13-16 years ago) had an obvious element of nostalgia but it felt so fresh. I hope Algernon keep the reunion going. They’re as good as ever and the world needs them.
After Never Hungover Again, Joyce Manor’s set included a whopping 17 other songs from all throughout their career, from the lesser-played early song “Fuck Koalacaust” to “Gotta Let It Go” off their latest album, and also a Murder City Devils cover. It was all a blast. Check out the full setlist below.
Last but not least, a “Let’s Go Mets!” chant broke out during the show, which I assume is because the news broke that The Mets signed Juan Soto to a 15-year, $765 million contract in the middle of the show.
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Joyce Manor @ Brooklyn Steel – 12/8/24 Setlist (via)
Never Hungover Again
Christmas Card
Falling in Love Again
End of the Summer
Victoria
Schley
Heart Tattoo
The Jerk
In The Army Now
Catalina Fight Song
Heated Swimming Pool
NBTSA
Derailed
Violent Inside
Beach Community
Chumped
Fuck Koalacaust
Ashtray Petting Zoo
Midnight Service at the Mutter Museum
(The Murder City Devils cover)
21st Dead Rats
Big Lie
Constant Nothing
Constant Headache
Leather Jacket
Encore:
Gotta Let It Go
Stairs
House Warning Party
Five Beer Plan