Alright Junior’s Record Release Party @ Bourbon & Branch.
Text and images by Brianna Spause.
There was a celebration upstairs at Bourbon & Branch on Saturday night. Alright Junior, the modern rock trio from Northern Liberties that have been making rounds in Philadelphia since 2006, dropped their second full length album, Amusia. And they invited all of their friends.
Around 80 people arrived early to fill the small venue for the three openers – and receive a free copy of Amusia. Alright Junior’s lead singer, Jace Miller, hung out in the crowd all night drinking Tecate and making the rounds with fans.
The Loud Company was up first, and they played a few songs off of their new EP, Airwaves. Frontman Zach Boyle demanded the crowd get moving and gave a little bit of incentive with high energy songs like “Dance Fever” and “Hiatus.”
Honah Lee then took the stage second and that’s when things got really noisy. The band pulled out covers of “Pork and Beans” by Weezer and “I love it” by Icona Pop to get the crowd involved.
Time seemed to get lost as the band crammed songs off of their latest album, Life Won’t Let Me, into the long set and put a strict time limit on the last opener, Wonder and Fury.
The night wasn’t a bust for the young band however. After a mellow, six-song set, lead singer Steven Rospock handed out the last copies of the band’s self-titled album.
“I am not making any more of these,” Rospock said with an air of relief after handing over the last copy.
He had packaged around 100 copies of the album by hand in cardboard sleeves sealed with Starbucks pastry stickers, a tedious task that he feared would lead to arthritis.
Eleven o’clock had rolled around by the time Alright Junior went on. Miller climbed up on stage with high black and gray argyle socks proudly on display and was joined by veteran drummer Mike Fraclose and the band’s newest member, Rob Perry, on bass. The record release was only Perry’s fourth show with Alright Junior but they pulled off the set with perfect chemistry.
“We’re going to play some shit from this new record, eh?” Miller began and immediately the crowd started moving.
Miller jumped directly into the crowd a mere two beats in and got things started right away.
Things quickly got really sweaty as Alright Junior played 10 tracks off of the new album, like “I’m Alright Now” and “Something Strange.” Dan Lyman of Big Terrible joined the trio on stage to play guitar for “One More Year,” for which he also assisted on the recording.
The members of all of the opening bands showed a sense of camaraderie as they held down front row positions throughout Alright Junior’s entire set, greeting Miller on the floor numerous times throughout the show.
You can catch Alright Junior next at Kung Fu Necktie with Honah Lee on July 31.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 
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