PHOTOS | REVIEW: Joywave brings Permanent Pleasure to St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit, Michigan

DSP05261-Enhanced-NR — Joywave at Detroit's historic St. Andrew's Hall (Photo: David Painter)

While we would never dare say that it’s the only highlight of any Joywave show, the coordinated
clothing always strikes major style points. Something the Permanent Pleasure tour delivers on
in absolute spades besting out even the 2019 tours Hi-Vis look in our opinion, but we’ll get back to those sweet, sweet velour outfits soon enough because we are obviously here for the music first and
the fashion trends… later.

Joywave took to the road once more to celebrate the release of their fifth studio album,
Permanent Pleasure, which hit the shelves and streaming services on May 17 of this year with
the tour having just kicked off on September 11. Tonight, we are in Detroit. And Detroit
wants, nay, Detroit demands Double-Destruction! And we got it, even if it meant the band didn’t get
paid for the set because of it. Could this be foreshadowing?!

As the lights began to dim a giant inflatable cat (which would also spin and light up, by the way), one closely matching the Permanent Pleasure album cover, began to grow at the center of the stage. A rumble building from the crowd with the boys of Joywave greeting fans decked out in Crayola green velour short sleeve shirts and matching shorts before grabbing the mic and declaring, “Joywave has come back to DETROIT!” A bold choice for such a bold band. The group opened their set with 2 songs off the latest album with “Graffiti Planet” and “Scared.” The former of which starts off with a vaudevillian sounding piano and a clip from the former mayor of the group’s hometown of Rochester, NY before flipping into that distinct Joywavian sound of synths, heavy guitars, combined with lead singer and very #famous #influencer Daniel Armbruster’s softer sided vocals.

Next up was “Obsession,” a song off 2020’s album Possession and a track that in addition to
being flat out awesome also has perhaps one of the greatest music videos ever made. Taking a
break between “Hate to Be a Bother” and “787 Dreamliner,” Daniel spoke to the crowd filling us
all in on their connection the band has to Detroit thanks to guitarist Joe Morinelli’s wife originally hailing from the area, a tid-bit that caused the crowd to erupt with cheers.

Continuing to play through their set dropping banger after banger, serving up songs from the
entire discography with songs like “Somebody New,” “After Coffee,” “Brain Damage,” and
“Coming Apart,” before sneaking into “Dangerous.” A song that was written in collaboration with Big Data and featuring Daniel’s vocals. It’s hard to believe that this is a track we’ve been rocking for over a decade now.

With their set slowly coming to a close, Daniel took to talking with the crowd once more, this time telling us that he was unaware that “our reputation had preceded us,” then producing a piece of paper from the venue stating that, “playing the same song more than once is a violation of your performance contact and will result in the forfeiture of your payment” with the crowd’s boos bellowing before he could finish reading. Daniel then continued, “now we have to decide if we want to get paid tonight or if we want to play Destruction again” passing the paper to a fan in the front row for verification just as the intro for “Destruction” began for the second time with the crowd erupting into cheers with everybody’s hands in the air!

The Permanent Pleasure Tour rolls on throughout the states before wrapping up in Buffalo, NY on October 18 at which point Joywave will jump across the pond to play a dozen or so shows across Europe. That leaves you with a month to find out when they’ll be closest, otherwise, you’re going to need to take a eurotrip!

Who: Joywave [ W eb | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify ]

Where: St. Andrew’s Hall, Detroit, MI

When: September 14, 2024

Photos and article by David Painter [ Web | Instagram | Threads | Facebook ]

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