Boston Loves The Boys: Boygenius Could Absolutely Break Our Hearts

The band boygenius formed in 2018 and pretty much exploded into the hearts and playlist of the young loving masses early last year when their debut album The Record was announced. The individuals who make up the band boygenius, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus, have each performed in Boston before they became boygenius. As a trio, they have a mix of followers from when they were soloists and new followers as one of the hottest indie band around. The summer of 2023, they sold out day three of Re:SET as the headliners and tickets for the September MGM Music Hall Boston shows sold out in no time.

While standing in line to get into MGM Music Hall, the buzz from fans, some who had lined up since 8 am to get a prime spot up front, and others who shared that they almost cried in the Uber on the way, was electric. There is always excitement to see a favourite band live, but there is an extra level of je ne sais quoi with boygenius. It is about the songs, the lyrics, who boygenius represents, but also there is something very special about these artists. Leaving the show, I overheard so many people talking about how vulnerable and honest that show was. Another fan shared with her love how happy they were to share it with them and how playful and fun boygenius is. There is that mix of pretty intense emotions and phases of life experience in the songs but you don’t leave the show feeling so heavy. That is no easy feat.

I think that feeling comes from who Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus are. Together they are the perfect bite. While one may be a little more serious, intense, and fragile another is playful and fun-loving, and a third is a balance of serious and vulnerable but able to laugh about it too. Together it is perfectly balanced and nothing comes on too strong. When they do go a little strong and deep, they change the energy of the show by switching up the song, talking to the audience or just being playful on stage. The rapport between Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus is honest and vulnerable. On opening night of the tour, Baker seemed especially raw and fragile and at one point I noticed a little check in from Bridgers-literally stepping on Bakers toes as a small reassurance and moment of “hey we’ve got this”.

Don’t get me wrong, fans are here for the vulnerability, the sadness, the deep emotions of love and loss and all the struggles we go through and they go through many of the audience are queer and young in the throws of it all. Fans can sing word for word most of the songs on the set list, and the connection to the lyrics and the artists is deep. Bridgers and Baker asked how many in the audience went to Berklee and professed the discomfort of performing in front of so many musicians who likely have more formal training than either of them. Bridgers also told them all to drop out and not let Berklee steal from them. While Baker softened the rant by saying a little more formal training would have been nice. I have to agree with Bridgers though because the cost of university is astronomical and being a musician is a long and hard road that is not aided by a ton of dept. Of course if you have the money to spare, then Berklee is an incredible institution. It just should be free or affordable- all university should be affordable like if is in most of the rest of the world.

At one point, Phoebe Bridgers had everyone put their phones away for a particularly meaningful song when she wanted to be able to look out to the audience and see faces not phones. As an audience member it was also so nice not to look out to a wall of phones without that unnatural glow.

I heard people talk about almost crying in the Uber on their way to see boygenius at MGM Fenway in Boston. Afterwards blissed out individuals and couples of all sorts left hand in hand, alive with the music and energy that the band doses out in heaps. “That was so vulnerable and honest.” was my favourite comment I heard as people were leaving the show. Music fans began to mix in with Red Sox fans as they left the nearby game. It was a funny melding of groups of people who had just eaten hot dogs and drank beer and other who had just poured their hearts out with one another for the past couple of hours.