REVIEW: JANUARY JANE AT GRAMERCY THEATRE IN NEW YORK CITY
Photo by Pete Roessler
On Saturday, January 28, I went to see New York City band, January Jane, play their first hometown show in several years. Guitarist, Mitch Mitchell, was quoted as saying,
“It's going to be an epic time playing in the Big Apple at Gramercy Theatre!”
The show sure was epic, and the sold out crowd was more than happy to dance along with the band to their big songs. The opening acts were Aiden Canfield and Movie Night. Aiden is a New York State native himself, hailing from Pleasantville. Aiden’s music is a perfect combination of country and singer/songwriter vibes. It was a way to build the night up as people trickled into the Gramercy Theatre.
The next band to open the show was a band called Movie Night. They kind of reminded me of Walk the Moon. They were a fun pop-rock act, and much more interactive with the crowd. They had this one song where they had words on a screen behind them so that the crowd could sing along to the chorus. After a Jimmy Eat World cover and a few more songs, Movie Night was done and it was finally time for January Jane to take the stage.
Before they came on stage, we were first shown the world premiere of the video for the upcoming single “Your Drug”, which is a super interesting video with bright colors interspersed with the band playing. They appeared to be in a crystalline type space which lends itself to interesting camera angles.
After the video, the lights darkened and the band came out. January Jane is a three piece band, made up of vocalist Pat Via, guitarist Mitch Mitchell, and keyboardist Peter Scialla. They started with a song entitled “Addicted to the Night”, which is a song that builds in the beginning and is a perfect opener. The crowd immediately started dancing and moving to the infectious melody of their brand of pop-rock. The band has rightly been compared to bands such as The Maine and Emarosa as far as sonically, and I can totally see it. Via has this falsetto type voice he can use that fits perfectly, and the dreamy, floaty riffs from Mitchell compliment each other so well. The band plays very well off each other and were feeding off the impeccable vibe from the crowd. Pat Via kept reminding the crowd how thankful they were to be there and play for their home crowd again, and even had a few songs about New York to show their love for the city.
Amid the set, the band also played a yet to be titled song that was quite the dancey track, and further had everyone participating in the set. The band sounded great and were clearly having fun up on stage playing for the crowd. We unfortunately did not get any kind of release date or hint from the band when the new song would be out, so make sure to keep a close eye out. If you have not heard of January Jane, get on board.