Modern Baseball are an emo/pop punk outfit from Maryland and Philadelphia. Having recently released their third full-length record, Holy Ghost, the band’s popularity has been growing at an exponential rate with every release. They are currently on a headlining tour in support of said record, with a little help from Joyce Manor and Thin Lips, and they just played a hectic sold out show at Pontiac Michigan’s The Crofoot Ballroom.

 

First and foremost, I want to applaud Modern Baseball on going the extra mile to show how much they care about their fans, and how forward thinking they are in regards to being active in changing the social climate with the issues we struggle with in America today. The band recently set up a hotline that would immediately notify the venue if they felt threatened, violated, or if an accident had just occurred. The bathroom doors also had gender neutral signs posted on them, ensuring that transgender fans can feel safe using whichever bathroom they see fit to use. There was also a food drive at their merch table, where anyone that donated would be entered to win autographed vinyl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The show kicked off with a band called Thin Lips. If you’re unfamiliar with Thin Lips, as was I going into this show, they’re a female fronted (not that it really matters, but you know, context) pop punk act from Philly. If you’re like me, and you enjoy your pop punk with more punk than pop, you’ll appreciate this band. They keep a touch of grit in their sound that I find sorely lacking in the current wave of pop punk music. I’m not sure if I was an outlier of not being familiar with the band or not, but if I was, it seems like the band made a great first impression on the crowd, and I caught plenty of fans talking to the band at their merch table after their performance. Keep an eye out for this band, they’re going places!

 

Joyce Manor took to the stage soon after. If I’m being honest, this was the main reason I was at this show. I used to be super into pop punk in high school, but as I grew up, I grew out of the scene. I still actively listen to Joyce Manor though, and are still one of my favorite bands. I had missed every chance I had to see them thus far, so there was no way I was going to miss them this time! They remind me of Your Favorite Weapon era Brand New meets something along the lines of Wavves. They hail from Torrance, California, the home of legendary pop punkers, Descendents, so it only makes sense.

 

Joyce Manor kicked off their set with “Falling In Love Again,” one of my favorite songs. A few songs in and I was still singing every word. I knew quickly this would be a great set. The setlist consisted heavily of songs off of their self-titled debut and their most recent release, 2014’s Never Hungover Again. They also threw in a Murder City Devils cover in for good measure. Thy played for about 45 minutes, which I was super pleased by. Even on their headlining tours, the band isn’t known to play longer than a half hour. Their songs rarely exceed the two/two and a half minute mark, so it’s not like they need that long anyway. Still, the longer set, on a support tour mind you, was quite a treat. Juggling between majority their first and most recent records created a cool contrast of the sounds that made a fantastic balance between the more punky stuff and the more melodic material.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of punky, I was concerned going into the show about the dynamic between the band and crowd. In the past, Joyce Manor has been known for being fairly anti-mosh. There’s the infamous stage diver callout, and you can see videos of them opening the show with kindly asking fans to refrain from rough-housing during their performance, for the sake of people that aren’t about that. However, they seem to have moved past that, maybe because the crowd seemed to all have the same idea, maybe because there was a barricade so that crowd surfers didn’t get on stage, maybe both. There was lots of crowd surfing, mostly out of irony, but even I had to do it myself at the end of their set, “Leather Jacket” is just that jam. The crowd was super energetic, jumping and slamming every direction. Pleasantly, Joyce Manor did not feel otherwise, and even called the crowd “Fucking incredible.” The long wait to finally see this band live was well worth it.

 

With the fans as rowdy as they were for Joyce Manor, I could only imagine what this sold out crowd was going to do during the headliner, Modern Baseball. As soon as the band kicked out their jams, there was not a single body standing still. I started the show from the far side of the crowd, near the door where people would go get fresh air or smoke a cigarette. The kind of area in the venue people go to to get away from the mania. Even there, hell in the first song, people were slamming. I was thrown in all directions: right, left, backwards, and forwards. And the volume of the crowd matched the motion. Every line the crowd yelled back at the singers, matching their volume, sometimes overpowering them, without the need for a mic or an amplification system.

 

Being the Holy Ghost Tour, the band naturally showcased a majority of the album live. That didn’t seem to be a problem as most fans have already latched onto the album and learned damn near every word in time for the show in the short time this album has been out. It’s always a challenge to play new songs in front of a crowd, especially in a scene that latches onto albums heavily for a very long time, and in a scene where there’s a new “It” band every week. This is why it’s so impressive that Modern Baseball, or Mobo, as the fans refer to them, were able to pull off playing so much new material to such approval from fans. They did not neglect their old material either. They matched the 7 songs performed from Holy Ghost with 7 more from You’re Gonna Miss it All, and 4 from their debut, Sports. To a casual “Mobo” fan such as myself, and one who is yet to be incredibly familiar with their new material, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of songs the band played that I was able to sing along to. If I was able to enjoy the show as much as I did, I would think any avid fan of the band would go as nuts as everyone else in the crowd if he/she were to attend their own date of the tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take this from a lapsed pop punk fan. Someone that has seen the ups and downs of the scene, someone that grew up with it, and may or me not be growing out of it. It’s tours like these that pull me back in and make me feel like I’m in highschool again. This is without a doubt the pop punk tour of the year. If you’re a pop punk fan, you’re probably already eagerly anticipating your date with tickets in hand, and to you I say that you can rest easy knowing you’re going to have a great time. If you haven’t gotten your tickets to your show, make sure you do soon as shows are starting to sell out and this is for sure the can’t-miss pop punk tour of the year.