Images: The Front Bottoms, Basement, Bad Bad Hat November 11th, 2017 at the Brooklyn Bowl

There has been a lot of talk about the death of the guitar in recent years. You’d be hard pressed to believe it, though, at last month’s Front Bottoms show. They’ve gone against that trend, developing a hugely devoted fanbase, one that filled up the Brooklyn Bowl, with their quirky lyrics and acoustic-guitar based rock.

The band came out to cheers that only dissipated when the crowd began singing along to opener “You Used to Say (Holy Fuck).” The chorus of “Holy fuck, I’m about to die Angry for no reason, twisted up inside You used to say” was sung so loud by the young fans that it was almost hard to hear the band. It was very reminiscent of the ferver fellow acoustic rockers Dashboard Confessional used to drum up in their heyday.

That fervor kept up for the rest of the band’s set, which included such fan favorites as “Flashlight,” “Maps” and “Twin Size Mattress.” Frontman Brian Sella had a big smile on his face throughout the set, obviously enjoying himself just as much as his band’s fans. It was nice to see him interacting with fans between songs, entertaining requests and just chatting in general.

The band brought along indie trio Bad Bad Hats and grunge revivalists Basement to open. I was particularly interested in seeing Basement again. Last time I saw the UK band they were playing East Side Joe’s (and had just announced they were breaking up) so it was cool to see them on such a big stage playing songs like “Brother’s Keeper,” “Bad Apple” and “Whole.” It was also cool to see that while not as big, they also had a number of fans singing along throughout their set.

-Emily Matview

Photos by Hunter Wallace | https://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter_wallace/