Ace of Cups played host on Monday night as Kevin Devine and his Goddamn Band, Pinegrove and Petal rallied against the undercurrent of a broken America to deliver a highly enjoyable evening of guitar-centric hook-filled rock and roll to a sold-out Columbus crowd.
First up were Pennsylvania’s Petal, a band based around singer/guitarist Kiley Lotz who performed both alone and with her travelling band as the songs ranged from softer solo numbers highlighting Lotz’s captivating singing, to full on Veruca Salt power-cord stomp-rock.
It’s rare to see a crowd sing along to every word of an opening act, but that’s exactly what happened for Pinegrove, a New Jersey pop-rock, with a slight hint of country, six piece that looked to be having the time of their lives upon the crowded Ace of Cups stage.
It’s almost shocking that Kevin Devine has nine full length albums under his belt, yet, somehow isn’t more of a household name given his incredible talent for writing some absolutely joyously bouncy pop-songs that had the Brooklyn based songwriter pogo’ing in-between verses for the almost 90 minute set.
Devine opened the show solo before being joined by the wonderfully enthusiastic brothers, Matt Prince on drums and Manchester Orchestra’s hair-flinging bassist, Andy Prince.
The band performed a large chunk of Devine’s recently released, “Instigator” while also bringing out crowd favourites such as “Bubblegum”, and a rousing version of “Cotton Crush” before ending the night with the halcyon “I Was Alive Back Then”.
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Matt Ellis is a freelance photographer who covers bands that visit the city and the Columbus Crew MLS team. More about Matt can be found at Matt Ellis Photography.
