Family of the Year 11.24.2015

Family of the Year performed at the Crescent Ballroom on November 24, 2015 in a pre-Thanksgiving-weekend show.  Family of the Year is touring in support of its newest release, Family of the Year, which dropped on September 4, 2015.

This was Family of the Year’s third appearance in the Phoenix area in 2015 – their first as a headliner.  They previously appeared at FestivAltAZ in April (gallery here) and as the openers for Lord Huron at the Marquee Theater in May (gallery here).  There was a significant, and very positive, difference in this performance from their previous two 2015 Phoenix performances.  They seemed a lot looser, more relaxed and showed a lot more personality as the headliner than they did in their prior appearances.

Maybe being a headline act gives the band more freedom to do their own thing than does being on someone else’s bill.  Maybe it’s that singer/guitarist Joseph Keefe just really loves Phoenix, as he proclaimed during the show, and is no longer afraid to let it show.  Hard for me to say, but it definitely showed in their performance in which they seemed a lot less serious and a lot more fun than in their prior 2015 appearances. One area where it really showed was in the banter between Keefe and vocalist/keyboardist Christina Schroeter.  It also showed when Keefe, his brother and drummer Sebastian Keefe, Schroeter and vocalist/guitarist James Buckey met in the middle of the stage for a couple acoustic numbers.

Here’s hoping that we get to see Family of the Year 3 times in Phoenix next year just like we did this year, but with more prominent billing so that we get more of the fun, relaxed Family of the Year that what we saw at the Crescent on Tuesday night.  (Setlist below gallery).

Review and photos by Greg Cohen

Photos © 2015 Greg Cohen

The setlist was:

• Never Enough
• Face Paint
• Make You Mine
• St. Croix
• We Need Love
• May I Miss You
• The Stairs
• Carry Me
• Buried
• Blue Jean Girl
• Every Time
• Diversity
• In the End

Encore

• Summer Girl
• Hero