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Joyce Manor brings angst to The Ritz.
Once upon a time in the early 2010s, you couldn’t set foot in a house show without hearing the opening riff of Joyce Manor’s “Constant Headache.” Over a decade after they took suburban basements and Tumblr blogs by storm, the Cali-native pop-punk band has stayed the course with their new album, I Used To Go To This Bar. Read: The record still reeks of cheap beer and nuanced nostalgia in a friend of a friend’s garage.
Taking the album on the road, the trio is embarking on a 42-show tour, including a Raleigh stop at The Ritz June 12. The group’s seventh record is an accumulation of everything Joyce Manor has made so far, vocalist and guitarist Barry Johnson tells RM. “It has qualities that have been there since our earliest material, and also dips into some new territory in some ways.”
By sticking to their original script, the group dodged the corniness and callowness that so often sinks midcareer pop-punk albums. Jumping from moshworthy to cryworthy and back again all in less than 20 minutes, I Used To Go To This Bar walks the tightrope between growing older and still feeling and doing things you think you should have grown out of.
“It’s remembering the past, but not with rose-colored glasses, and actually trying to remember the exact flavor of misery you felt,” maintains Johnson. “Remember exactly how your old apartment smelled? Remember what it felt like to start work at 2pm?”
Tony Soprano once said: “‘Remember when’ is the lowest form of conversation,” and Joyce Manor complies—but believes talking about the realistic and pragmatic moments (the bad times) makes for a far more interesting conversation than a “good old days” jab sesh.
Also gracing the album is arguably Joyce Manor’s first true love song—“Falling Into It”—so it won’t entirely be a sob story at The Ritz. But, fear not—there’s still angst galore.
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