The Greeting Committee at Royale: This Is (Most Definitely) It
Not even 10 minutes after the doors to Royale opened, Kansas-based rockers The Greeting Committee took to the stage to open for Bombay Bicycle Club. I was caught completely off guard since I wasn’t expecting the show to start so soon, and so I panicked, rapidly scrambling to assemble my camera and rush over to the press pit.
As it turns out, the rush of adrenaline that I experienced couldn’t have come at a more apt moment, as The Greeting Committee came out of the gates absolutely roaring. Starting things off with a cover of Nirvana’s “Aneurysm,” vocalist Addie Sartino brought a punkish intensity with her, leaping about the stage, thrashing her hair around, and yelling out to the audience, who enthusiastically reciprocated her vigor. Judging from the crowd’s reactions, there was no way that The Greeting Committee could have kicked the night off on a higher note.The Greeting Committee retained their exuberance, spunk, and limitless energy for the rest of their set. “She’s A Gun” rapidly evolved into a fierce and frantic emo-inspired banger, which sent the crowd into overdrive. And tracks like “Hands Down,” “Don’t Go,” and “17”—the last two of which are from their 2018 album This Is It—shone like the sunny, carefree, and high-spirited indie rock that you might have listened to in middle school. But what differentiated their music from said genre of indie rock was that their songs carried the wisdom and weight of one’s post-teenage years behind them. Sure, the songs sounded youthful, dreamy, and innocent, but they didn’t make me feel like I was stuck in the past—they also made me reflect upon my coming-of-age moments.
The Greeting Committee briefly slowed things down on “Dancing to Nothing At All,” which started off sounding sparse and mellow. However, the song quickly built up to an intense and beautifully lush instrumental breakdown, during which, none of the band’s members could even stand still! Bassist/saxophonist Pierce Turcotte and Sartino even mashed into each other as they respectively delivered powerful and passionate saxophone and guitar performances.
Accompanied by nothing but Turcotte’s delicate sax work, Sartino ended “Dancing to Nothing At All” by crying out: “If you’re gonna love someone—let it be me.” With their wistful sound that somehow manages to perfectly capture the wide-eyed purity of adolescence, yet also remain wise beyond its years, I’m confident that The Greeting Committee will come to be loved by a rapidly growing audience in the coming years.