Andy Grammer has been encouraging us to keep our heads up since 2010. That same inspiration and positivity was palpable at Boston’s Orpheum Theater on Wednesday night.
After an exhilarating set from opener Alt Bloom, Grammar kicked off a night filled with love, acceptance, and “joy.”
Sitting by the glow of a Victorian lamp, Grammar spit verses about authenticity. “You think God would bring you here to not trust your intuition? What if the reason you don’t feel like you belong is because you’re the thing that’s missing,” he rhymed.
Between hits like “Fresh Eyes” and “Honey, I’m Good,” as well as a Kids Laroi, Louis Prima mashup, he pulled back the curtains to reveal the true emotions and stories behind his music.
Grammer divulged that during the pandemic he struggled. ”Being home was not good for me,” he shared. At the request of his therapist, he wrote a love song…to himself. “I’ve never written myself a love song,” he joked. The result was “Love Myself,” an anthem that clearly struck a chord with the crowd who echoed it back.
While introducing “She’d Say,” a song he wrote from his mother to his daughter, he shared a moment of divine intervention. Before Grammer’s late mother passed, she told him to listen for Billy Joel songs. Each time he heard one it would be like her saying hi. When Grammer arrived to the venue on Wednesday, the caterer’s Billy Joel sweatshirt caught his attention. In talking with her, he found out her name was Joy, just like his tour title, The Art of Joy. Perceiving this as a message from his mom, he invited Joy on stage for the performance.
As the audience got to know Grammer, he attempted to get to know them. For “I Am Yours” he asked the crowd how many people used the single as their wedding song. There were an overwhelming amount of hands that went up. “It is so sweet that you used it. I feel close to you like I was at your wedding,” he told the couples before singing the song to a sea of cell phone lights.
It wasn’t just the couples that got to get involved in the performance. Grammer introduced a new song and recorded the crowd’s voices to be included on the release. Impressed by the audience’s vocals and volume, he teased, “you guys can just be part of my sessions from now on.”
“Have you felt some joy this evening?” Grammer asked the crowd as he closed out the show, to which the crowd responded to it with cheers.
Grammer artfully poured everything into the performance and the audience left with their heart’s full.
