lovelytheband Plays It Free

What’s the magic word? Free. 

A few weeks ago, I went to see Lovelytheband for free at Hudson Yards. I wasn’t expecting too much from a free concert, but was pleasantly surprised.

The opener was Sipper, an NYC based band. With soft guitars and hazy vocals, they have a bedroom pop feel. They opened with their newest single “hotties” and progressed through their hits, ending on “Dance in Room Song”. I enjoyed their set and definitely see a niche little market for them. 

Lovelytheband roared onto the stage “loneliness for love” off their 2020 album Conversations With Myself. Compared to Sipper, these guys were loud! The stage presence was phenomenal. During multiple songs, frontman Mitchy Collins came down to run alongside the barricade. We had a nice little face to face second.

The band played a nice variety of songs from different albums. Aside from their originals, they also covered “Mr. Brightside”. That opening guitar riff is the fastest way to get a crowd to go crazy. All I have to say is iconic. 

Before the last song of the night, Mitchy gave a little speech about the importance of mental health and checking on your friends. Looking around the crowd, you could see everyone nodding along and taking in his words. The sense of togetherness amazes me every time I’m at a concert. 

Togetherness is exactly what happened when the band played “broken”. During the song, Mitchy made his way to the center of the crowd and everyone formed a kind of circle as they sang along. It drove home the power of the song and Mitchy’s message. 

This was the first concert I’ve been to where I was able to bring my camera along. It’s definitely hard to get shots when you’re stuck in one place in the crowd, but at the end of the night it felt great knowing that I was coming away with capturing some memories. 

You can check out photos from the show here.