Joywave at the Albatross (May 16, 2025)

 

 

Tour Dates

• May 17: Charleston, SC @ Music Farm
• May 19: Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
• May 21: Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall
• May 22: Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman Theater

Rochester-based band Joywave just headlined the The Albatross (formerly known as Underbelly) earlier tonight (May 16, 2025), in support of their new album Permanent Pleasure.

 

Both touring bands were confused about the venue’s name change. When they originally booked the show, the venue was called Underbelly, but by April 15, 2025 there were new management and they wanted to change the name to the Albatross. In fact, if you look at the original poster, it showed Underbelly as the venue.

Since I’ve never been to the Albatross (nor Underbelly), this is located on the same block of The Florida Theatre (I walk past it) and very close to Decca Live. Decca Live lists 1,000 capacity, but I believe this number includes the second floor and roof… to me it felt like they were closer to Albatross (despite the fact that they only list 500 standing). I would compare this venue to the Amsterdam Bar & Hall in St Paul. The Amsterdam is a little deceiving… it’s much larger than you think because the venue is divided in half (a stage area and a separate bar/restaurant area).

The Albatross, under the name Underbelly, lists as a smoked BBQ restaurant – so I’m not sure if the restaurant area was closed off to me, but the area I was at only had a stage, dancefloor (with four columns that blocked view), and a bar area on the right-side. The left-side were band merchandise.

Starting the show was Dallas alt-trio little image (singer/guitarist Jackson Simmons, bassist Brandon Walters, and drummer Troy Bruner), playing their first Jacksonville show. Despite being from Texas, the band admitted, “Ain’t gonna lie, it’s hot down here” referring to the scorching 96° F heat. The band is enjoying their national tour, having already played three other Florida dates (the Jax date is their last FL date), and taking advantage of their day off between dates to go to Disneyland in Orlando.

Highlight of the show was about mid-way into their set, drummer Troy Bruner took out his portable drum kit and set it up in the front of the stage, while guitarist/singer Jackson Simmons sat down on the drum kit.

I spoke to a big fan at the show, who drove over an hour from the neighboring state, Georgia, to see Joywave. It was his fourth time seeing the band, having first caught them opening for Thirty Seconds To Mars on their 2018 tour (also with Walk the Moon and Misterwives). Since then, he’s seen them headline Jack Rabbits (which the band also gave a shout out, “This is no Jack Rabbits!”), as well as other cities in the area. Joywave has built up a good reputation, playing Florida over the years.

 

We did catch the band in late April 2025 and reported, “For Joywave, from the stage it looked like a night off at home. The stage was dimly lit and the curled up cat from the new album’s cover, was reproduced as a large inflatable that would sometimes rotate on a lazy susan type platform. We say ‘night off’ because when we saw them live last time (co-headlining in 2022 in Lawrence), they were all ‘at work’- dressed in matching car wash attendant jumpsuits to support their previous album, ‘Cleanse’. This time, the band dressed in matching striped navy pajamas (one could say the “cat’s pajamas”, haha) which also seemed very comfortable to perform in.”

Unfortunately, the Albatross stage wasn’t big enough to include their giant sleeping cat (see photos from Kansas City). The stage was barely big enough to fit all six band members: singer Daniel Armbruster, guitarist Joseph Morinelli, drummer Paul Brenner, bassist Kevin Mahoney, guitarist/keys Connor Ehman, and additional guitarist/keys Taylor Dubray.

Although Joywave’s setlist remained mostly the same, it’s interesting to note that they’ve replaced a few songs on the Jax set, playing “F.E.A.R.” and “Ugly Ending” as the new songs on the set. The latter is a song by Best Frenz, a collaboration project between Armbruster and Jason Suwito of Sir Sly.