Just hours before the show, Grey Season’s bassist, Ian Jones, had posted on the Facebook event page warning fans of the meager two dozen tickets that remained.
Later that night, as Lady Pills churned out garage rock with fuzzy guitar and bass lines, Grey Season’s band manager, Jon Bergamo, excitedly buzzed near the entrance of Great Scott. “We’re sold out!” he exclaimed.
Beers sloshed around in plastic cups as fans pushed towards the stage, with Jones kicking off the night alone, shortly joined by drummer Benjamin Burns, guitarist Matt Knelman, lead vocalist Jon Mills, and banjoist Chris “Gooch” Bloniarz.
“We’re Grey Season!” announced Gooch. “That’s why we’re all here!” someone yelled back, band and audience exchanging smiles.
As the band moved from old to new to old again fans punched their fists into the air with the beat, wiggling their fingers to egg on Knelman’s shrieking guitar solos. Throughout the set, the crowd shouted out the names of their folk-rocker friends and joined in on their five-part harmonies. The show was less a crowd sing-a-long and more a unified chorus– an extension of the band.
“This feels like a giant family reunion” someone said.
Great Scott’s dim lighting was replaced with perfectly-timed flashes as Charlie Gargano of Murdock Manor lit the stage, flickering and dimming the homemade light switch setup that had colored Grey Season’s sets for so long. At one point, Jones took a knee, fiddling with the knobs at his feet, prompting Gooch to play a wedding entrance jingle on the keys. After many a guitar solo, Knelman finally took off his hat, sweat flying.
Finally, the band’s set came to a close with “New Kind of Dirty,” all five members frantically drumming and strumming. It was wild and feverish crescendo, drawn out, because no one wanted it to end.
With that, Grey Season moved offstage, stepping up to the stairs where each crowd member had entered just hours before. Behind the black railing, Grey Season stood for an acoustic number: a cover of Iron and Wine’s “Faded From Winter.”
For a moment, even the dusty Elvis bust seemed to be smiling.
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Watch a video recap of the night’s performance below: