Nashville-based Judah and the Lion headlined Irving Plaza on October 18th, one of the few times they’ve returned to the New York area since scoring an early time slot at Governor’s Ball in June. After a long intro of distortion, excerpts from historical political speeches, and smoke, as the sold-out crowd waited patiently, they bounded onto the stage for an extended butt-shaking dance at the audience to T-Pain’s “Booty Wurk” before grabbing their instruments and places and launching into “Twenty Somethings”.
Throughout their 17-song, 90-minute set, they danced and spun all over the stage, whipping up the crowd to join them in dancing and on their soaring refrains. And like true New Yorkers, the band used every inch of real estate on stage including sometimes the top of the crowd’s up-stretched arms as they surfed over the fans. It was hard to determine who was having more fun, the audience or the band.
You can’t take your eyes off euphoric frontman Judah Akers, clad in all white with bleached blond hair and a pure white acoustic guitar, who only stopped dancing a few times to intro a song or banter with the crowd. After a woman snuck on stage while Judah was intro-ing a song and interrupted his chitchat to ask for a selfie, he happily obliged saying that she deserved something for successfully getting backstage. Even when the drummer, Spencer Cross, had no mic, he was always singing along. Dylan Oglesby, hidden in the back alternating between guitar and accordion, danced, whipping his long dark mane around and relishing every moment that he could romp up to the front of the stage. The appreciative crowd roared as they recognized each song and sang along, especially on the full-throated choruses that are trademark to many of J&TL’s songs.
Musically, the band is anchored by Brian Macdonald’s mandolin and Nate Zuercher’s banjo complemented by the exuberant stage presence of Judah. Somehow the band crosses the upbeat message of Michael Franti with the full-throttled fun of Deer Tick with the rocked-out Americana of The Avett Brothers, through the lens of youth. Nate’s excellent banjo is ever-present, yet serves to create a fast and upbeat pace rather than exude country. Dylan whips out an accordion for a few songs but it fills the sound rather than retreats to folk.
Their biggest songs – “Going to Mars” and “Take It All Back” closed the set but included their obligatory two-minute dance party where everyone except Spencer the drummer left their instruments and cavorted around the stage as the song continued but piped in. Other highlights were “Conversations”, “Back’s Against the Wall”, dancing with their shirts over their heads during “Reputation”, and their cover of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside”.
J&TL were supported by Irish band The Academic on their first US tour and singer-songwriter Tyson Motsenbocker who played deeply personal songs. For the encore, J&TL brought all of them back on stage for a (mostly) acoustic version of Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me”, which veered into Karaoke territory as the crowd joined in singing. But luckily the band jumped back into their places, Judah taught the crowd the chorus and they all launched into an excellent over-the-top version of “Water”.
