REVIEW: The Regrettes @ Brighton Music Hall 10/6

By Veronica Harris

Photos by Monica Sucic

This past Sunday night The Regrettes took the stage at the Brighton Music Hall in Allston. The performance was part of their tour to promote their album, How Do You Love, which was released August 9, 2019. The band toured with two opening acts, Hala and Greer.

Hala was the first to perform. The band was formed in Detroit, Michigan by their lead vocalist and guitarist, Ian Ruhala. Bringing with him a Heineken onto the stage it was clear he was the oldest out of the lead vocalists with both Josiah of Greer and Lydia Night of the Regrettes only being 18 years old. The age of the musicians was most definitely reflected in their audience.

Hala’s stage presence was great. Not having a set list made them come across as a genuine band the audience could connect with. For their song “She,” they had the audience put their hands at chest level and raise them up as the music rose. A fun moment was when backup vocalist and guitarist, Austin Blicher did a short cover of a Beatles song and no one knew the words. Throughout the short song Ian was encouraging the band to sing along. Little moments like that throughout the show made the band connect with the audience and made them seem like friends rather than a different entity on a stage.

Up second was Greer. The band can be described as surf rock which makes sense since they are from the state of California. Greer was able to gain some of its audience through its social media influence. Their drummer Lucas was a popular vine star who continues to make skit-like comedy YouTube videos with his brother and friends, including lead singer Josiah. If you were not familiar with their online personalities their stage personas came off as a little strange. They still put on a good show. They opened with the song “Airplanes,” though unreleased it can be found on YouTube with the video titled “Introducing Greer.” They did a great slow rendition of “Someday” that was arguably better than the original sung by the Strokes. They finished up their time on stage with “Song for Me” one of the only two songs they’ve released. They left the entire crowd singing along. On their way out, an audience member handed them a small skeleton with a cowboy hat. Since then they have named it Lil Homie and made it an Instagram account, @lilhomie6578, where they update its adventures on tour.

Then came the moment the crowd had been waiting for, The Regrettes. As soon as the intro, “Are You in Love?” started playing the crowd went ballistic. The Regrettes music can be described as a rebellious teenage girl in the best meaning possible. With only their first song, “California Friends,” they had the whole crowd jumping up and down. Their energy, stage presence and crowd involvement were spectacular. Their music made me feel the same way as I do when I’m bouncing around to my favorite song in my room. Their performance allowed even the oldest member of the audience to let out their inner teen angst. During their song, “Go Love You” they did a call and response encouraging for the audience to be louder with each response and having opposite sides of the crowd compete for who was the loudest. Another similar moment was when Lydia instructed the crowd to stop when she said stop and go “harder than you’ve been going the entire night” when she says go during their song, “Stop and Go.” They ended their set with “How do you Love” which like every other song of the night had the audience screaming lyrics and jumping around. For their encore song they performed, “Poor Boy” where they called for all the boys of the room to go to edges of the crowd and for everyone else to come to the front. This song was girl power to the extreme and completely and wholly incapsulated their show.