Marc Broussard at the 9:30 Club

 

Image found here

I had seen Marc Broussard in concert before (read that blog post here), so my friend and I bought tickets to see him again when he came to the 9:30 Club last week. We got there very early (even braved the rain standing outside!), so we were able to stand right next to stage (the man behind me fist-bumped Marc!). We were so close, which was really cool, albeit quite loud.

Image found here

The opener was a band called Nicotine Dolls. My gender bias thought this would be a girl group, but there were actually no women in the band. Supposedly “nicotine dolls” are the people who “stand outside smoking all night because they are too afraid to go inside but can’t bring themselves to leave.” Sam Cieri, the main singer, has a Napoleon complex and mostly sings about sex and his insecurities. Annunciation is not his forte: I think I caught one out of every ten words he was singing. Songs are poems, and they are a lot meaningful when you can understand the lyrics… I liked the music itself, but I could take or leave the singing, since I didn’t know what was really going on.

A fan gave them rhinestone sunglasses, and on cue he did his best Elton John impression. Very fun!

Here are some of their videos:

Upset the Neighbors

What Makes You Sad

Hate It // Fight It

They were actually on America’s Got Talent, but seeing as the kind of songs he sings, I’m not surprised he didn’t win. It’s a family-friendly show, and some of his songs, while the music may be upbeat, have some darker messages...

I couldn’t find a video on YouTube, but you can listen to their song “How Do You Love Me” on Tiktok. I could actually understand most of the lyrics when he sang this one, and the title reminded me of the Garbage song “Why Do You Love Me” (which I think is much better, but you can be the judge):

But anyway… On to the main act!

Photo credit: Mike Davis

Marc Broussard’s show was banging from the get-go. I was dancing along and feeling the blues/funk/soul vibes (how could I not while standing right near the speakers?). We were closest to his young guitarist, who was so good. If he’s this talented now with that baby-face, he’s going to get even better over time. I really enjoyed the music, but since it was late and I had to catch an early bus the next day, we left before the encore. But how cool to see Marc up close and personal like that!

Check out my previous blog post about Marc to see some of his videos.