Concert Review: Greg Mendez at Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY

From a cursory perspective, the actions that Greg Mendez takes while performing on stage may be misconstrued as nonchalance. Whether it's the casual toss of the phone after appearing onstage and sitting in his chair, consistently asking the audience what time it was, or the lack of any real banter outside of an occasional thank you, it really is just Mendez, his guitar and a keyboard for about 75 minutes. However, that simplicity is the greatest strength of the evening, with the absence of the typical live script providing the opportunity to explore a form of introspection usually sacrificed for grandeur in a venue the size of Music Hall Of Williamsburg.

Songwriter Greg Mendez’s career has outlasted the heights of bands that formed around his initial foray into music, but a new layer of attention has begun to congregate around his written material over the last few years. Mendez’s self-titled record found a world outside of the northeast corridor (as many of his projects traversed through his time living in Philadelphia and New York) through acclaim on music blogs and highlights within online communities. Mendez’s Dead Oceans debut Beauty Land, released earlier this year, capitalized his unique airy narration style amidst an ever growing pool of singer-songwriters, showcasing that less can be more in terms of the quick bites of music captured in his Philadelphia studio. 

While walking into the venue, I quickly realized I was above the average age in the room. As I grow older, this is something that I've found come up more often, as my mid 20s have pushed me far past the era of youthful concert-goers. However, I find it inspiring to see young audiences going out of their way to catch shows, especially ones like these which are very DIY in their nature and enriched in their intimacy. This wasn’t the only aspect of the audience giving me hope for a more present generation of concertgoers: many of the audience members towards the front held point and shoots and camcorders, finding ways to capture the show in a more analog perspective than simply holding up their phones. In fact, in direct contrast with an audience of this age, there were very few phones out in the entire room. The person with their phone out the most was more than likely me, and that was because I kept jotting down observations, so maybe I’m the one with bad concert etiquette this time around.

A lot of the set revolved around Beauty Land, such as album opener “I Wanna Feel Pretty,” “Everyone Wants To Be Your Friend Except Me,” or “It Breaks My Heart.” However, the exciting aspect about Mendez’s set was the spontaneity involved with every song choice; there was no paper set list, and the minimalist instrumentation provided an environment where any song from his catalog could come next. Songs such as Mendez’s breakout song “Maria” were just as likely to come as Cherry Hell’s closer “Donut Shop.” Best of all, they always felt like they're right decision in the moment to carry out the set. Towards the end of the night, Mendez asked for requests, and in that moment you probably could've picked any song of his over the last 20 years and he would’ve executed it perfectly. At Williamsburg, the sub-two-minute “Geraniums” made its way into the request list, one of the many stories on Beauty Land telling so much with so little.

The simplicity of Mendez’s songs never took away from the emotional depth, a major part of why his minimalist setup worked so well. There were multiple lyrical moments that cut through the space, with tracks like “Hoping Your Doing Okay” from Mendez’s self-titled piercing hearts left and right. “I still hope your name don’t appear in some obituary/I know it’s so unclear when you’ve begged so long on bruised knees” is just one of many examples from the impactful moments of the night. Every new song provided an opportunity for the captive audience to breathe with the music and let it move through them, something easily accomplished with the airiness of the room as opposed to a full on band setup.

Greg Mendez’s gig at Music Hall of Williamsburg provided a worthwhile checkmark for the halfway point in the year, and judging from the audience reactions during and after the show, it seems like these gigs will only get better. You can check out Mendez’s latest record Beauty Land here.