NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
Indie rock band Joywave, from Rochester, NY, has been making music for a dozen years now, generating new fans with every release, ever since “Dangerous” (Big Data featuring Daniel Armbruster) hit the clubs and had everyone dancing! Five studio albums later, this funky band announced a North American tour to support their latest “Permanent Pleasure”, release in May of this year. Their new LP was a celebration of Rochester with a historic introduction by Mayor Tom Ryan from 1984, the year lead vocalist Daniel Armbruster was born! Kicking off the tour in Toronto on September 11th, Joywave came full circle and, on October 18th, brought their groovy sounds to Buffalo to close out their tour. Since the band is from Rochester, it’s funny that they decided to perform an hour away but this didn’t deter their hometown fans nor their fans from Toronto from making the trip to Town Ballroom in Buffalo for the party!
Opening the show was HUNNY, a rock band from California. These guys are much more straightforward rockers (think bouncing heads rather than dancing), reminding me of Tokyo Police Club who just graced this stage ten days prior. Many of the audience members were very familiar with HUNNY, singing along to many songs. Lead vocalist/guitarist was especially animated on stage, providing an energy to the venue that would carry forward to the headliners.
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With a giant sleeping cat prop at the back of the stage, Joywave got things rolling right away with the “Graffiti Planet”, the lead track off their latest album. They followed up with “Scared”, also from “Permanent Pleasure”, before digging back into their catalogue and really ramping up the energy in the venue with “Obsession”! With the whole crowd singing and dancing, you could feel the fans almost moving as one, surging back and forth in time with the band. Armbruster was like a kid with ADHD, moving back and forth and left to right with a manic intensity that was infectious. As expected, the setlist was made up of almost the entire “Permanent Pleasure” album as well as quite a number from their debut album. Even after seeing Joywave multiple times, I’m still amazed by the vocals, especially Armbruster’s falsetto and Taylor Dubray’s background falsetto!!
In between songs, Armbruster gave a shout out to the Buffalo Bills (to huge cheers) and to the Buffalo Sabres (to a smattering of boos since they’re currently sixth in the Atlantic conference)….that is until he asked the crowd humor him and cheer anyway! Joywave closed out their nineteen song regular set with “Destruction” before stepping off stage to cheers. When they returned to the stage, Armbruster teased a new song with Taylor Dubray starting the song on harmonica. After the first strains of the harmonica hit our ears, flashing lights and the pounding notes of another performance of “Destruction” began but with the band and the crowd amped up 200%! What a way to close out the show! Joywave is really amazing to see live, with a presence that you can’t possibly get from streaming. They have a week off before heading out on their UK/EU tour so, for those in North America, you’ll have to wait until next year!
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