NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
Did you know that on Tuesday 2/22/22 Pluto completed one revolution around the sun after 246 years? Ok, so we missed by one day and it hasn’t really been that long since we last saw Grouplove. However, for some of us die-hard fans, it SEEMS that long. The band had just started doing promos in early 2020 for their fourth studio album “Healer” when the pandemic hit and everything shut down. They weren’t idle during that hiatus as evidenced by the release of their fifth studio album “This is This” almost exactly a year later. Grouplove has played a few sporadic shows and festivals in 2021 (see my coverage of the See, Hear, Now Festival at Asbury Park) and 2022 and NYC was lucky enough to be one of their stops on Wednesday. It was also vocalist Hannah Hooper’s birthday which made it double reason to celebrate.
Opening for Grouplove was local indie band Melt. What a perfect way to kick off the evening! With energetic lead vocalist Veronica Stewart-Frommer bouncing around the stage and even a trumpet and saxophone thrown into the mix, I could easily see Melt becoming your favorite young band. Check out their debut EP “West Side Highway” (released Feb 2021).
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When the crew brought a large cardboard cake onto the stage, I thought “Hannah must be in there, right?”, although knowing this group, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they somehow squeezed the whole band into the cake!!! As Hannah emerged from the cake, the band kicked off the show with “Just What You Want” off their most recent record. Oh how we have missed this band.
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After the high energy “Deleter”, Grouplove brought back some memories with tracks from their early days. During the set, they also played two new songs from their upcoming album. The first has no name yet but the second is called “Stay Close to the Cheese”. Love these guys! With the music industry the way it is, it’s so wonderful to see a band really enjoy playing with each other as this group definitely does. As usual, bassist Daniel Gleason did his “shoey” routine, drinking beer from his sneaker. Thrilling some and maybe not so much others, it’s still always a fun time.
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During the encore, a real cake and balloons were brought onstage for Hannah. As the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” (for the second time), she blew out the candles. Some lucky fans up front even got to get some cake smashed into their faces! I’m sure we’re all hoping that Hannah’s wish was for a great 2022-2023 with a new record and more tour dates!
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