On Monday, September 25th, a line mostly made up of young people decked out in eyeliner, Doc Martens, and friendship bracelets stretched for several blocks past Boston’s MGM Music Hall. They were waiting to see boygenius, their beloved indie supergroup made up of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. The 25th was the first show of their fall tour, and the room seemed to be filled with more excitement, passion, and love than ever before.
After opening the show from backstage with the short acapella tune “Without You Without Them”, the trio darted onstage and struck the first chords to the exhilarating rock song “$20”, which was followed by another energetic performance of “Satanist”. The crowd loved the upbeat songs but they were just as captivated during the quieter moments, like “Souvenir” and “Revolution 0”. The audience never quieted down too much, and it was clear that most people there knew just about every word to every song.
The group made everyone in the room feel seen, loved, and accepted. There were multiple acknowledgements of their noticeably queer audience, and the following night Dacus would collect pride flags from them which she used to decorate the stage. It was also impossible not to feel the bond between the three of them as many of the songs they played were about their friendship, most notably “True Blue” and “We’re in Love”. There were many intimate moments with the audience as well, including Bridgers walking into the audience after requesting that phones be put away, and Dacus holding out her microphone to let the fans sing the end of “Ketchum, ID.”
If this wasn’t enough, there were a few surprises thrown in as well. Towards the end of the show the trio played an unreleased song and proceeded to announce an EP called “the rest”, which was released this past Friday, October 13th. Another surprise was the appearance of Hozier, whose powerful baritone blended nicely with the group during the encore. However, even if these last two events hadn’t happened, the show would still have been the best place to be that Monday night. If you missed it, consider listening to “the record” or “the rest”, because the kind of love that boygenius put into the world is rare and precious.