Harrison Gordon and Sobs help turn a night at the RMA into a celebration of showing up, letting loose and looking out for each other.
A circle pit during Sobs felt a little premature. The Singaporean indie-pop band was opening the night with bright melodies and a dancing vocalist, but the crowd at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium was already finding somewhere to put its energy. Apparently, warming up for the noise required a few laps.
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By the time Mom Jeans took the stage Oct. 28, that enthusiasm had carried through three distinctly different sets. Sobs supplied the pop, Harrison Gordon brought garage-band grit and punk instincts, and Mom Jeans delivered the kind of choruses an audience comes prepared to sing back. There was room for crowd surfing and circle pits throughout, even if the headliner ultimately inspired more of a sea of cellphones.
Sobs offered the evening’s lightest touch. Vocalist Celine Autumn danced through a set of guitar-driven pop, giving the opening slot a breezy feel before the night moved toward rougher edges. The band’s printed setlist included “Air Guitar,” “Last Resort,” “Burn Book” and “Friday Night,” a selection that suited its bright, melodic approach.
Stephen Day
The pit suggested that at least some of the audience had arrived with its own plans. Even this early, people were ready to participate.
Harrison Gordon gave that impulse plenty of encouragement.
The four-piece from Normal, Illinois, had the familiar look of guys you might meet at a hometown gas station talking about their band. It was easy to imagine a few overworked amplifiers in a garage somewhere behind them. Onstage, that unassuming quality came with considerable confidence.
Stephen Day
Their sound straddled punk and pop-punk, pairing melodic instincts with anti-establishment songs and enough force to keep people moving. Frontman Harrison Gordon knew how to work the room, drawing a response bigger than might be expected from a smaller opening act.
“One million crowd surfers” became a recurring request before songs. After a couple of repetitions, it became clear this was an ambitious participation goal rather than the name of the next track.
The crowd obliged with surfing and a circle pit, but Gordon also made clear that enthusiasm came with responsibilities. Mid-song, he stopped the set to address someone at the front.
“If you’re here making it a worse place for everyone else, you gotta go, those are the rules,” he said.
Stephen Day
The crowd cheered. That response captured something about the night’s communal spirit. People were there to throw themselves into the music, support the bands and have a good time together. Gordon’s interruption drew applause from the same room he had been urging toward greater chaos.
Mom Jeans inherited an audience with plenty left to give.
The Berkeley band landed firmly on the pop-punk side of the evening, with songs built for collective singing and fans eager to take their parts. Phones rose across the floor as the crowd sang along, making the headlining set feel as much like a shared chorus as a concert.
Stephen Day
The band still wanted a bigger pit.
After taking a jab at an Arizona audience for supposedly not knowing what a circle pit was, Mom Jeans pushed Riverside to demonstrate its credentials. The bassist supplied perhaps the evening’s most memorable instruction:
“Open up the circle pit you lazy motherfuckers.”
Stephen Day
There had already been a pit through much of the night, including during the decidedly less aggressive Sobs set. The demand was an invitation to go harder, though the audience’s strongest connection with Mom Jeans remained the singalongs. The band had energy to spare, and the crowd matched it in voices and raised phones as well as movement.
Harrison Gordon had been the evening’s surprise, earning an enthusiastic response through strong stage presence and a frontman equally willing to encourage crowd surfing and stop a song when someone crossed a line. Mom Jeans brought the familiar songs that fans wanted to share at full volume.
From the first unlikely pit to the headliner’s sea of screens, Riverside came ready to take part.
