I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: March 26, 2022] grandson

My son got me into grandson a couple of years ago.  I really like his debut album, death of an optimist.  I promised that if grandson toured, I’d grab tickets.  I bought the tickets for this show a while ago and had no idea that in the interim, grandson had become (in relative terms) really popular.

He wrote the theme song to Suicide Squad which had apparently upped his profile and, he was also opened for Imagine Dragons which is pretty massive exposure.  So good for him.

It also meant that this show was much more crowded than I thought it would be.  We arrived pretty earlier, but the merch line was crazy long.  By the time we got into the show it was pretty crowded, but I know Union Transfer, and I know where there’s a good spot to get you closer to the action.

grandson put out a few EPs before the album, and I don’t know them very well.  I assumed the show would be most of the album.  But he opened with a song I didn’t recognize.  But everyone else did. The crowd was 100% into it.  And grandson slowly launched into “Darkside” but then told the band to stop.  There was an emergency in the crowd about ten feet behind us.

He stopped the show and called out to security and over the next few minutes we learned that someone there had passed out or had a seizure or something.  I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to be nominally in charge of a crowd while this was going down.  But he handled it very well.  He kept everyone calm, and gave everyone updates and was really great about it.  And so was the crowd.

After a few minutes, the guy was taken out on a stretcher and grandson asked for his name and wished the guy well and said he’d dedicate the rest of the show to him.

It took a minute or two for grandson to get himself back in the zone–that must have been really freaky, and you could see that it weighed on him for a few songs.  But he was able to get back into  the show and so were we.  And the rest of the show was fantastic.

I loved “Darkside.”  He dedicated “Overdose” to anyone with an addiction problem.

Grandson really engages with the crowd.  He prowled the stage, dancing around, walking to the edge and making eye contact and high fiving people.  One of these times, I need to get my kids right up front.

Then he said that he had some rules at at grandson concert

If somebody gets knocked down at the grandson concert you pick them up.  Shout out to everyone for getting our attention and stopping the show thank you.  Now, if someone loses a phone at grandson concert and you find it on the ground…  you keep that shit it’s yours now.  Prank call their mom, that’ll dhow them.

After “Apologize” he played a song from Optimist–“Dirty.”  The song is a real banger with a super catchy horn riff and inquiring lyrics:

Do you have enough love in your heart
To go and get your hands dirty?
It isn’t that much, but it’s a good start
So go and get your hands dirty
Do you love your neighbor?
Is it in your nature?
Do you love a sunset?
Aren’t you fed up yet?
Do you have enough love in your heart
To go and get your hands dirty?

I’m not sure how they generated the sounds they did.  The band consisted of guitar player Ramón Blanco (there were no bassist on stage that evening) and drummer David Rehmann.  I guess Rehmann was triggering the horns and such?

Up next he played a new song that he has recorded with Steve Aoki, a DJ who I don’t really know but who I know is huge–another step up for grandson.  He followed that with an a capella introduction to “Bury Me Face Down.”  It was pretty wild–his voice was creepily processed–which sounded pretty cool.  And he asked everyone to sing along with him

He followed that with “Rain,” the other song from Suicide Squad.  And then he surprised me by bringing out an acoustic guitar and playing a quiet version of “The Ballad of G and X”

He left the stage while a recording was played.  A few minutes later he came running on to the stage. He was no longer wearing his Black Lives Matter shirt–he was dressed in a suit with a loose tie around his neck and he was acting dazed–like he didn’t know what was happening.  It was a fun and unexpected transformation.

This is when he played a bunch of songs from Optimist.  “Identity” with its big sing-along chorus and the creepy “WWIII.”

The prominent visual for this album is grandson with two black Xs over his eyes.  There were many many people in the audience who had done that for the show.  I didn’t think if it and neither did my son for he said he would have done it if he known.  Just before “Despicable,” grandson grabbed the black makeup and drew two xs on his eyes and then sang the song with its great creepy horn melody.

During the show, Grandson pitted one side of the room against the other (we were on the guitar side) to see who was louder.  Then he noticed a woman in the audience with a sign that said will you sign my cast.  He said, I will but not right now. Actually if your side is louder tonight I’ll sign it.  After a couple more songs, he called her up on stage. She was so giddy, she was incoherent and he did sign her cast.

Then he ended the set with “Stick Up.”

There are about five songs on the album that I would have loved to hear, but evidently I don’t like the popular songs because he didn’t play any of them.

Instead, he came out for an encore and told everyone that he was really impressed with how well the audience acted tonight so he was going to do two encores (although I see that he does two encores most nights but whatever).

He played a ripping version of “Stigmata” and then talked about how everyone knew what the last song would be (I didn’t).  It was “blood//water” and he handed out bottles of water for people to spray around the room as the song peaked.  Not especially environmentally friendly but pretty cool nonetheless.

What really impressed me about grandson was the way he encouraged everyone to be present, to participate in things that effect them locally. To register to vote and make your voice heard. He talked about building a community of progressive people who look different but who think the same.  He waved whatever flags people threw on stage–LGBTQ+ Trans, Ukraine.  He stated that he was vaccinated and pro-science and pro LGBTQ+ and that Black Lives Matter.   To hear everyone cheer was a great feeling.

I told my son after the show that I love it when artists can motivate a crowd like that.  I’m old and have heard it all before, but I feel like if I’m impressed by that, then younger people might actually get motivated to make a difference.  So good on grandson for being a truly decent person and for rocking our socks off.