by Chris Stoppiello (English)

GRO fans love GRO. That might seem painfully redundant but it’s something that stuck out to me at last night’s NYC show. The fans packed in close and eagerly sang along. They were lovingly curious of my presence and excited to see when and where they could find my coverage of the show. Well, here it is:

The gentlemen of Green River Ordinance certainly know how to make the crowd a part of the show. I tried my best to keep journalistically impartial but as early on as song two, the soaring catchy “Sleep It Off,” I was mouthing along the few words I knew. It’s easy to have fun at a GRO show and I think that is largely because of how much fun the band itself is having. It didn’t matter if singer Josh Jenkins was joking with the audience or his band mates because either way everyone laughed.

The climax of the show was when opening act Sleeperstar joined GRO on stage and the 10 friends did an extremely sincere cover of “With a Little Help From My Friends.” Exploding in to the chorus, I felt chills as they hit all four harmonies. Sleeperstar did an excellent set of their own, including a cover the put all the romance back in to “Such Great Heights” previously stolen by Sam Beam.

All the unabashed fun of the night is symbolized in guitarist Jamey Ice’s mesmerizing grin; sheer proof that the night was about enjoying life. In fact, Jenkins touched on that. In the middle of “Goodbye LA” he urged the crowd to appreciate that we live in a country where we can take part in live music on a Tuesday night. He urged us to “sing to the fact that we’re alive in New York tonight, and that’s a beautiful thing.” The night ended with the band stepping closer to the crowd to perform “On Your Own,” literally ‘unplugged,’ with neither amp nor microphones. Sing we did, and beautiful it was.