Good Kid @ Roadrunner 4/16

Photography by Sam Weber

Review by Michelle Leung

A giddy buzz filled the night air as fans lined up around the block to get into Roadrunner on Thursday. The venue was packed to the brim, with people flooding the floor and practically hanging off the balcony in anticipation of the two indie rock bands. The lights dimmed at exactly 8 p.m., and INOHA, the opening band from San Antonio, Texas, ran eagerly onto stage.

They started with the thumping, bass-driven track “Naomi” before introducing the members of the band: Keanu Bicol (lead singer and rhythm guitar,) Christian Young (bass, vocals), Ricky Juarez (drums), and Gavin Gonzalez (lead guitar, vocals.) From there they progressed cheerily through “GESHUOU,” “Checking Out,” “Downpour,” and “Heartbreak, Heartbreak,” continually encouraging the audience to mosh, create a pit, and crowd surf. INOHA’s smiles shined as they hyped up the crowd, who jumped and screamed along to “I Should’ve Known,” “Imitate,” and “A Next Time.” Ending off with two high-energy hits, “Saturday Nights” and “Seventh Heaven,” INOHA jammed out onstage and showed Boston that they know how to have a good time.

During the setup of Good Kid’s elaborate, lore-driven set, a TV was wheeled onto center stage reading “Retention Cam,” featuring several mini-screens with pre-recorded gameplay of the band’s augmented reality game Ghost King’s Revenge, Subway Surfers, a car simulator, a “Family Guy” rerun, and a video of a never-ending black-and-white swirling spiral. The raucous audience entertained themselves, oohing every time the car was about to hit an obstacle or stray from its track. 

A hush fell over the crowd and the TV was removed while a recording of streamer and voice actor LilyPichu began to play as a nod to the lore-heavy world of Good Kid. “Visible emotional reactions, such as laughing, crying, expressions of shock or joy, can be distracting to other attendees. We ask that you experience this event internally,” Lily said in a monotone, robotic voice, and the crowd booed jokingly. 

Then Good Kid hopped onto stage, Jon Kereliuk heading straight for the drumset while Michael Kozakov rocked out on bass, Jacob Tsafatinos and David Wood strummed their electric guitars, and Nick Frosst commanded the lead vocals for “Wall,” the lead single of “Can We Hang Out Sometime?” This debut album was released on April 3, and they launched right into their U.S. and U.K. “Can We Hang Out?” tour the following week.

The white and purple stage lights flashed incessantly, adding to the enthusiastic crowd’s cheers while Good Kid transitioned into the next song “Bubbly” straight away. “Oh my God, there’s a lot of you out there,” Tsafatinos laughed, following up with how the show was the biggest they’ve ever played, so they were going to go hard. Tsafatinos introduced each of the members, then Kozakov sang “Tell me why,” and the crowd immediately responded “Ain’t nothing but a heartache,” continuing on in a call-and-response until the audience finished “I want it that way.” Kozakov said, “That song was called ‘I Want It That Way’ but it should’ve been called ‘Tell Me Why,’ this next one’s called ‘Tell Me You Know.’”

The crowd sang along as green and blue lights flashed across the stage. Good Kid instructed that during the next song “Witches,” fans should make a “wall of death,” separating into two sections and coming back together. The section on the left screamed “We talked, we talked about it all night!” while the section on the right responded “We thought, we thought we’d make it alive!” The band perpetually radiated energy, jumping and acting out their lyrics passionately.

The performance continued on into “No Time to Explain” before Tsafatinos explained that the crew pranked him every night by exchanging his setlist with a random object — tonight, a cup of coins. Frosst brought out a miniature claw machine with the setlist trapped inside, and it took two tries before Tsafatinos was triumphant. The band played “Nomu” next, strobe lights dazzling the audience. Tsafatinos and Frosst instigated a fake battle over who supported the Boston Celtics, playfully enacting a fight onstage, then sang “Slingshot,” “Eastside,” “Tornado,” and “Rift.”

Tsafatinos and Frosst recruited a fan, Adam, to come onstage and play Guitar Hero to one of two songs: “Alchemist” or “Osmosis.” Adam picked the former and the band launched into it, telling the crowd that the highest score any fan had gotten was an 89%, from the Cleveland show. “That’s the score to beat!” said Tsafatinos with a smile. By the conclusion of the song, Adam had achieved 59%, and was given the guitar. 

Good Kid brought the atmosphere down with a grittier, emotional song titled “Ground,” one that has been a staple at their shows for years. They continued into “Down with the King” before Wood introduced the next song, the unreleased track “Staying Warm.” He wrote the acoustic piece for his father, whose health had taken a downward turn. Good Kid finished off the slower section with Kozakov’s song “Ghost Keeper,” the drums and electric guitar returning. 

Then it was right back into the bangers with “Aloe Lite,” “Cicada,” their viral hit cover of Laufey’s “From The Start,” and “Coffee.” The crowd cheered and sang along: “Punching all the lights out / Life got me so stressed out / Nobody wants to talk to me / I wanna talk to you.” 

Next came “Summer,” whose chorus the crowd vamped on: “This can’t be the end” numerous times into Frosst’s held out microphone. During this, he motioned for the audience to sing quieter and quieter until he leaped up and everyone sang at full volume. 

To determine whether there would be an encore, Tsafatinos and Frosst tossed a huge twenty-sided die used for Dungeons and Dragons, promising there would be more songs if the “charisma check” number was above 10. Although the die landed on one, they used an inspiration point for a reroll, which landed on nine. “Since you guys have been so great, you get +5 points!” said Tsafatinos, after which they played the acoustic love song “Madeleine,” “Ginger Lemonade,” and capped off the night with “Mimi’s Delivery Service.”

Overall, Good Kid emanated authenticity and energy the entire night, fully embodying the idea of letting go and having fun with the crowd. As they continue to build out their intricate animated world and experiment with other mediums of storytelling, it’s clear their tight-knit fanbase will follow them “wherever they go.”