{"id":38206,"date":"2023-07-19T15:24:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T19:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=38206"},"modified":"2023-07-19T15:24:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T19:24:58","slug":"photos-review-lovejoy-royale-6-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/07\/19\/photos-review-lovejoy-royale-6-6\/","title":{"rendered":"PHOTOS & REVIEW: LOVEJOY @ ROYALE 6\/6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photos & Words by: Kathryn Harmon<\/p>\n

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The realization hits me somewhere between following the block-and-a-half long line to enter The Royale and watching someone burst into tears of excitement in front of me at the box office- I am woefully out of my league.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Armed only with a DSLR, my phone at half battery, a pack of gum, and wide, unbelieving eyes, I watch as fans rush into The Royale and stake their claim on the floor. I scrape my hand on a wall in my haste to follow the crowd into the venue and ask a bartender for a Band-Aid. Once she sees my photo pass, she leans in conspiratorially. \u201cDo you have any idea who these guys are? My niece is here, but I\u2019ve never heard of them,\u201d she confides.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I have definitely heard of Lovejoy. Truth be told, I\u2019ve been listening to their music since their first EP, \u201cAre You Alright?\u201d. So I give her the rundown: Lovejoy was started by Joe Goldsmith, the guitarist, and Will Gold, the frontman, in 2021. Ash Kabosu, the bassist, was apparently recruited in a burger shop because he was carrying a guitar, and Mark Boardman, the drummer, was hired off of Fiverr. The motley crew of musicians, joined on the US tour by Jackie Coleman on trumpet, started by playing gigs under pseudonyms before launching into a packed and incredibly successful UK tour. Every show on both their UK and US tours has sold out within hours.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The line (which the bartender tells me was already down the street at 7 AM that morning) can mainly be explained by Will Gold\u2019s popularity on websites like YouTube and Twitch under the pseudonym Wilbur Soot. During COVID lockdown, Gold streamed himself playing video games and interacting with viewers from an office in Brighton, England, garnering hundreds of thousands of live viewers every day. Fans of Lovejoy, who are usually also fans of Gold\u2019s online content, are an overwhelmingly young, female, queer, and\/or neurodivergent group. I overhear one of the many parents dragged to the venue grumble to his wife that they\u2019re all \u201cteenyboppers,\u201d but the Lovejoy crowd is much more than that. A group of people used to ridicule and embarrassment for their interests all find safety in The Royale, comforted that they are in good company in what one fan described to me as \u201ca crowd of people who hate crowds.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the hour before the show, the room is abuzz with friendly conversation. I overhear reunions between fans that had only met over social media, gushing compliments about outfits, soaring laughter, squeals of disbelieving excitement, and, to my surprise, bits. Since the fanbase is so virtual, chants, jokes, and calls-and-responses have spread (pardon the pun) virally throughout\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lovejoy\u2019s shows, chanting other YouTubers\u2019 names or starting singalongs. The security officers\u2019 eyes are starting to twitch about 15 minutes in as they slowly learn that the screaming is just created by the crowd itself. Lovejoy\u2019s audience is like a firestorm- self-sustaining, passionate, and unrelenting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once the openers come out, the crowd is surprisingly respectful and unsurprisingly enthusiastic. Spilly Cave is first, a Philly-based group with a smooth, jazzy sound. The members match the crowd\u2019s energy perfectly, jumping and dancing and laughing with the crowd between songs. Next on is Crywank, who is very self aware of their position as a lone acoustic performer right before Lovejoy. This doesn\u2019t stop them from putting their whole heart into the soul-crushing,<\/span><\/p>\n

morose lyrics that set them apart from the other acts while keeping a light attitude. Crywank has had a huge influence on Lovejoy, being cited as a lyrical inspiration by Gold over the years and even becoming self-proclaimed \u201cbest friends\u201d with Lovejoy\u2019s drummer, Mark Boardman. Both openers are well-received by the crowd, providing sonic compliments to the headline act that would seem contradictory in any other setting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the background music and house lights dim at about 9:05, a chorus of deafening screams awaits Lovejoy as Goldsmith, Kabosu, Boardman, and Coleman wave to the audience, set up their instruments, and fail to hide their smiles. There\u2019s an air of anticipation, a breath held, as people realize who\u2019s missing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Enter Will Gold, striding onstage in a black button-up with Alex-Turner-esque flair. Screams that seemingly couldn\u2019t get louder immediately do. As he plugs in his guitar, Gold is all smiles, watching the audience as adoringly as they watch him. It\u2019s hard to avoid being a little star-struck by the group. The crowd\u2019s energy next to the band\u2019s command over the stage makes it seem like Lovejoy was made to be rockstars.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their set roars to life with \u2018You\u2019ll Understand When You\u2019re Older,\u2019 a song from the EP \u2018Pebblebrain\u2019. This song, like most of Lovejoy\u2019s music, hits a few common lyrical themes- British culture and politics,<\/span> apathy, and a cynical view on love. Despite being upbeat, their songs carry an air<\/span> of melancholy, a complexity that coexists with the catchy guitar riffs and melodies. Lovejoy\u2019s witty<\/span> lyrics and synthesization of musical inspirations like Arctic Monkeys, Bombay Bicycle Club, Two<\/span> Door Cinema Club, and Los Campesinos! presents an outsider\u2019s look into the minutiae of life in the<\/span> UK by recounting stories of lost love and disenchantment. And the audience knows every word. Even<\/span> Gold comments how surprised he is at that. Gold talks to the audience after every song, whether it\u2019s<\/span> an explanation of the next song, an anecdote about his experiences on tour, or a quip at his own<\/span> expense. The audience hangs on his every word, laughing and cheering in response.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The show goes by in a thunderous blur. Echoes of screaming fans, ear-ringing bass, screaming<\/span> trumpet, Gold\u2019s laughter, and camera shutters seem to haunt the Royale long after the crowd has<\/span> filtered into the pouring rain outside. I hear the same phrase I\u2019ve heard about Lovejoy since they<\/span> debuted dart across the crowd. \u201cOne day,\u201d they gasp to a friend or parent, \u201cthese guys might be<\/span> playing stadiums, and I can say I saw their first tour.\u201d The band has been declared an up-and-coming<\/span> band to watch by multiple publications, including Rolling Stone and Dork, and as they enter their first<\/span> festival season in the UK this summer, a lot of eyes will be on their performances. Lovejoy has their<\/span> fingers on the pulse of a niche online world. Their success, then, is evidence of that world\u2019s<\/span> incarnation into the mainstream, a rare victor over the thousands of bands trying to balance virality<\/span> with reality. <\/span>When- not if- Lovejoy returns to the US, the spectacle will not be one to miss.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can stream Lovejoy\u2019s latest six-song EP, \u201cWake Up & It\u2019s Over,\u201d anywhere music is found.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photos & Words by: Kathryn Harmon   The realization hits me somewhere between following the block-and-a-half long line to enter The Royale and watching someone burst into tears of excitement in front of me at the box office- I am woefully out of my league.\u00a0 Armed only with a DSLR, my phone at half battery, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20911,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38213,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38206\/revisions\/38213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}