INTERVIEW & REVIEW: QUARTERS OF CHANGE
By: Sophia Eye
On just the third show of their biggest tour, Quarters of Change brings together Boston’s Alt-Rock community with an enthusiastic Audience.
Brighton Music Hall in Allston, MA just outside of Boston was packed with Late-GenZ and Millenials on Friday, February 24th rambling with anticipation for Quarters of Change’s biggest independent show in Boston. For those who are unfamiliar with the up-and-coming band, Quarters of Change is a perfect blend of Experimental Alternative Rock with melodic hip hop.
Starting when the band first formed in 2017, the group began as a cover band and would record after hours in their schools basement, hiding from security to continue recording. In 2019, the band was completed with the addition of Ben Acker, who acts as the band’s Guitarist, Bassist, Synths, and Producer. Now the band stands with Ben Acker, Attila Anrather on drums, Jasper Harris playing guitar, and Ben Roter as lead vocals. They are also accompanied on this tour by Mark Pogg on Bass.
On their biggest tour to date, the band is making their way across the country and learning about how to maximize their potential. “We just set up a new live system, so we are hoping that translates to massive musical improvements”, says Ben Acker on what the band hopes to get out of this tour, “We just want to get better”.
The band has grown and changed since their formation in 2019, altering their sound as they evolve. “The constant experimenting has led us to where we are and where we’re going” says Ben Roter. “We are all students of music in our own right, thats the number one thing we push on each other. The change in the music is just a continuation of that studying”. Further Ben Acker states that “its as simple as hearing a new song and showing it to each other or jamming it out. Every new thing you hear or learn that inspires you kind of becomes vocabulary and your sound. All of us are doing that at the same time so it becomes a cool exponential melting pot of sounds”.
Becoming the forefront of Alternative Rock, Quarters of Change has many musical influences “We actually have been kind of inspired by Prince recently, especially in our newer shit has hasn’t been released yet” says lead guitarist Jasper Harris. “Police, U2, just to name a few” says lead vocalist Ben Roter. The band has a variety of influences from past decades as well as artists like Charlie Burg, a fellow New York artist, all of whom play a role in the formation of Quarters of Change’s unique sound.
Opening for Quarters of Change was the band Late Night Drive Home, setting the bar high with their impressive set and my personal favorite song of theirs, Television Romantic. Their vibe of Garage Rock worked well with the energy of the audience, and also worked well setting the stage for Quarters of Change.
As the audience was waiting in anticipation in the dark room, etherial music playing from the stage, the growing sound of a drum beat starts playing and the lights slowly come on to reveal the band joining in with the drums and slowly fading into their first song of the night, Jaded.
Quarters of Change owned the stage with their performance, demonstrating the closeness of the band members throughout their set. Ben Roter was not afraid of getting up close and personal with the energetic audience, jumping into the photopit to get closer to the ecstatic fans. The emotion from Guitarists Ben Acker and Jasper Harris was felt by every member of the audience as they shredded back to back. However, Jasper Harris shined and left the audience screaming during his solo in the popular song “Kiwi”. The audience screaming every word back at the band, the fans were exhausting all their remaining energy into jumping and dancing to the popular song.
Another unforgettable moment from this concert was the performance of “dead” which not only demonstrated Ben Roter’s vocal talent, but the talent of drummer Attila Anrather. This song united the audience together to all head bang in unison to the catchy beat, and left the fans yearning for more.
Quarters of Change closed out their show with two encore songs: Sofia, and Rift. As they ran back out onto stage, the roar of the audience reignited the rooms energy as the band bopped around the stage to their songs.
“I just hope that our music makes people feel less alone” Says Ben Roter. And it was evident at Brighton that’s just what Quarters of Change does for their audience.