REVIEW: Two Friends @ MGM Fenway

Photo credit: Greg Fry

Review by Isabelle Ireland

Two Friends is made up of two lifelong friends, Matt Halper and Eli Sones. The two are essentially DJs that mix electronic, dance, and pop music. They are widely known for their volumized hour-long mixes titled “Big Booty Mix.” This past Wednesday, February 5, the two played at MGM Fenway from 9:45 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. to a sold-out floor—but mildly full balcony. 

The set opened with a grey-haired man giving a weather report about an incoming “Heat Wave”—the title of the Two Friends tour. It was ironic considering the long line at the coat check before they began. The weatherman suggested “cooling off” by swimming and the graphic showed Halper and Sones in the pool, sitting in the shade, and eating ice cream. 

Immediately after the report was over, two strobe lights from above the stage lit up their DJ table and the two ran on stage with microphones screaming at the crowd as the strobe lights multiplied. After welcoming their fans, the music remixed and played, “It’s Getting Hot in Here.” They amped up the crowd slowly and played “Fein” within the first five minutes which was expected and boring. The crowd in the middle of the floor was ready to dance and mosh while the outer circle was barely swaying until about 30 minutes into the set.

There was clearly a lot of work put into this show: The edits on the screen, lights, and pyrotechnics. The pure joy exuding from Halper and Sones was contagious. The person who makes their graphics is incredibly talented. Each mix segment had different images, even better than the last.

This was definitely a concert to enjoy with friends. There was plenty of time between mixes to chat and take a deep breath, but when the music started up and the beat dropped, everybody was smiling.

There was no real setlist, they simply mixed music which was very different from typical concerts. The one thing I truly hated was the amount of times Two Friends said “Boston!” during their set. It is understandable to thank the city you are in but they must have referred to Boston at least 25 times.

For many of their songs, lyrics went up on the screen, regardless if it was an original or a mix which helped the crowd stay loud and engaged. One thing about their originals is that Two Friends should stick to mixing. The lyrics were cheesy and the beat was not as good as the mixes they produce.

Although they should never sing again, comedy could be their next move. My favorite bit was when a rapper in the song was not announcing their words, the screen would reflect a jumble of letters that sounded like the mush of lyrics. When rappers were uneasy to hear the lyrics they made up words—it was really funny.

The best part of their show was when their friend would come out from the wing and play his saxophone. It was incredible to watch him play perfectly with heavily mixed songs. At one point, the saxophone even had sparklers coming from it. This was an example of a high moment but the lows in this show were very low. Occasionally, the lights would turn off and the music would stop. Some of the beat drops were a miss and their countdowns to the beat drop were regularly off by a couple of seconds, making the beat drop not hit nearly as hard. However, Two Friends knew how to bring people back and really create a community.

Two Friends were smart and created a halftime break using the same weatherman from the beginning of the set. They came back hard with “Turn Down For What” and they even mixed “Hot To Go.” They played very well to everyone in the crowd. They had newer songs, older songs like “1738” and really old songs like “Sweet Caroline” which they closed with, dedicating the song to Boston… again.

Before “Sweet Caroline”, towards the end of their set, they decided to try some crowd work. This included posting a video of the crowd saying that a fan has a crush on a celebrity (of the fan’s choice) and posting it to Instagram. They also tried doing the classic Red Sox hat game with a fan to see if she should stay on the stage to take a photo for their socials. They played a few unreleased songs and mixes that I cannot remember because they simply were not good in my opinion. 

Overall, the concert was enjoyable but certainly not my favorite. I expected more from Two Friends considering I grew up listening to “Big Bootie Mix” in the gym. Honestly, they should stay away from a microphone and stick to what they are legends at, mixing music that already exists.