{"id":47875,"date":"2025-04-14T23:32:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T03:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=47875"},"modified":"2025-04-15T13:21:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T17:21:51","slug":"half%e2%80%a2alive-roadrunner-4-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2025\/04\/14\/half%e2%80%a2alive-roadrunner-4-11\/","title":{"rendered":"half\u2022alive @ Roadrunner 4\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photography by Madison Kahler<\/p>\n

Review by Ashley Duong<\/p>\n

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half\u2022alive, an alternative-rock band hailing from Long Beach, California, took the stage at the 3,500-person capacity venue Roadrunner in Boston, Mass. on April 11. The eleventh show on their \u201cPersona\u201d world tour was a dynamic show of moving parts\u2014one reliant on artistry, storytelling, and one that kept the crowd insatiable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve previously seen half\u2022alive in Boston twice, once in 2021 when they opened for Twenty One Pilots and again on their \u201cConditions of a Punk\u201d tour in 2023. Needless to say, my expectations were high and my excitement was uncanny.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The show opened with performances from mehro and The Walters, two openers of the alternative\/indie genre. After a blackout, a low synth hum, and a rumble, the all-too familiar puppets from the \u201cPersona\u201d album cover art took the stage, waving to the crowd and eliciting enthusiastic cheering. The two puppets pointed at each other and then shareed a moment, touching hands and reflecting each other\u2019s movements, a subtle foreshadowing of the story this concert hoped to tell. After a brief hug, the lights flashed to accompany the band walking on stage to perform \u201cSophie\u2019s House,\u201d a single off of \u201cPersona\u201d and an invigorating opener, with its cathartic chorus and groovy bassline. It was followed by familiar fan favorites, \u201cSummerland\u201d and \u201cThe Fall.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cBoston, Boston, Boston\u2026 I\u2019ve been looking forward to this one,\u201d said Josh Taylor, the lead singer. He was dressed in an all-red tracksuit, and the bassist J. Tyler Johnson and drummer Brett Kramer had similar, matching red jackets. They stood in front of a large grey curtain with a tall, square platform behind them and four rectangular towers with moving spotlights to the right of them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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As half\u2022alive performed their newer set, I felt like I was experiencing a new version of them and their show\u2019s production. Between the prominent drumming and Taylor crowd surfing in \u201cAutomatic\u201d and the lighting momentarily switching to red during \u201cBleed it Out\u201d\u2019s lyrics, it was clear that there was a mountain of care that the band put into performing each song, wanting to make each one its own individual experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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And much of a half\u2022alive concert experience, as long-time fans know, is attributed to their dancers. Unlike other concerts, where backup dancers support the lead singer and add to the performance, the dancers at the half\u2022alive concert<\/span> are<\/span><\/i> the performance, bringing the songs\u2019 stories to life. Like how the light fixtures to the right of the stage and the matching outfits helped tell a story of reflection, conflict, and growth, the dancers told the stories by dancing with the lead singer and reflecting the lyrics through their movements. During \u201cLong Drive,\u201d the dancers emulated the lyrics, showcasing the protagonist\u2019s desire to overcome overwhelming emotional feelings through escaping with a long drive. It felt as if the song was accompanying the dancers, not the other way around. The dance interlude afterwards allowed the audience to see just how talented the dancers were, standing alone, telling a story about synchronicity, control, balance, and power with only their movements and the sound of a ticking clock.<\/span><\/p>\n

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After a cover of \u201cLeaving on a Jet Plane\u201d by John Denver, and a stripped-down mashup with \u201cbeige,\u201d \u201chot tea,\u201d and \u201ccreature,\u201d Taylor went straight into \u201cThank You\u201d from their newest album. It was during this slower song that I realized that I\u2019m not sure what Taylor is. On paper, he\u2019s the lead singer, a front man, yet seeing him on his stage perplexes me, because I\u2019ve never seen someone excel in live storytelling the way he does. He dances with the dancers while he sings every lyric with grit and meaning, an act that looks nearly impossible. Afterwards, he tells a short speech about how special live music is, because for one night, we get to share a moment together in a singular room: I wonder if he knows that the love he pours into his performance is what makes this moment so special.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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An undeniable and unexpected favorite of the night was an unreleased song titled \u201cTears in the Rain.\u201d It had a musical storyline, one with a prominent bassline and a captivating lyrical and melodic chorus, that held me in a trance that I haven\u2019t been able to break out of since.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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To end the show, the band played \u201cRIP\u201d featuring the lead singer from The Walters, who was radiating an immense amount of joy\u2014an emotion you can\u2019t help but feel from a half\u2022alive concert. It was followed by \u201cstill feel\u201d and \u201cRUNAWAY,\u201d two classics from their discography. During \u201cstill feel,\u201d Taylor threw his microphone off stage with a huge smile on his face, exploding into a final dance break and proving the truly dynamic nature of this show, one reliant on moving parts with the greatest payoff imaginable. And to close off the show, one about reflections and changing personas, the entire band and dancers ended in the same exact pose\u2014a meaningful image resonant of unity in such a dynamic show.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This wasn\u2019t a show, but a story about reflections and personas, that throughout life, you will meet new versions of yourself that may seem eerily familiar or distant. Half\u2022alive has a way of sharing such a vulnerable message that anybody can relate to. I think that\u2019s why I keep coming back to them\u2014in hopes of understanding how they continue creating this intimate space, and if I never find the answer, I will do the next best thing: experiencing a half\u2022alive concert.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photography by Madison Kahler Review by Ashley Duong half\u2022alive, an alternative-rock band hailing from Long Beach, California, took the stage at the 3,500-person capacity venue Roadrunner in Boston, Mass. on April 11. The eleventh show on their \u201cPersona\u201d world tour was a dynamic show of moving parts\u2014one reliant on artistry, storytelling, and one that kept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21925,"featured_media":47877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1895,1525,1523,15],"tags":[837,2362,1926],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47875"}],"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\/21925"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47875"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47909,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47875\/revisions\/47909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}