Concert Review: Laura Jane Grace Refuses to be Boring at Meow Wolf

I walked into Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station for Laura Jane Grace and the Mississippi Medicals’ concert on April 5 in the absolute wrong mood for a concert. I was tired; I was cranky, and frankly, I was having a hard time getting excited for the concert. Frankly, I wanted to go home and go to bed. I’ve seen Laura Jane Grace and her former band, Against Me!, more times than I can count, and I didn’t think I could muster the same excitement at seeing her perform that I had the first few times seeing her.

The last time I had seen her was for New Years Eve on December 31, 2023 when she played the Marquis Theater with no band, just herself and an acoustic guitar playing mostly Against Me! covers with just a handful of her solo songs sprinkled in there. That performance was spectacular, but it made me feel like there was nothing new that she could show me anymore. I’ve seen her with Against Me!, I’ve seen her with Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers, and I’ve seen her as just Laura Jane Grace. I’ve seen her play electric and acoustic sets. I felt like there was nothing left that she could do to surprise me. It turned out I was very wrong.

The opening band, Rodeo Boys, had a punk rock style mixed with a bit of country twang and some really nostalgic melodies with frontperson Tiff Hannay (they/them) who gave a queer perspective to the whole thing. Even without ever having heard their songs before, there was something familiar and warmly comforting to their songs, yet they still had a punk edge. Since I was tired, and because I didn’t think I was going to write a review of the show, I sat out the second opener, Alex Lahey, which I now regret. Alex, if you’re reading this, whenever I do a review and I miss one of the opening bands for whatever reason, that means I owe that artist some coverage in the future. So I will make that up to you, I promise.

As Laura Jane Grace came to the stage, she immediately demonstrated that yes, she does still have the ability to surprise me after all these years. She opened on her song “The Swimming Pool Song” from her 2020 solo acoustic album Stay Alive. On the album, that’s a somewhat mellow, contemplative song recorded by Grace alone with an acoustic guitar in the early days of the pandemic. For this concert, however, she completely transformed the song by playing it with an electric guitar and full band and dialing up the tempo, transforming the song into something completely new.

The surprises didn’t stop there because she then proceeded to do something I had never seen her do before. With every variation of her solo project I’ve ever seen, she usually plays a few songs from her solo career, but quickly drops in some Against Me! covers to appease all the old fans of her former band. But, on this night, I watched as she played solo song after solo song, showing a confidence in her newer material that I had not seen from her since the dissolution of Against Me!

Her confidence, her swaggering bravado, and her high-octane energy sold everyone on the fact that her new stuff was every bit as good and important as her old hits, and the audience of faithful fans seemed as well versed in the lyrics of her new songs as they were with the old ones. I believe I counted approximately nine to 10 solo songs before she launched into her first Against Me! song, which was “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong” off the band’s 2002 debut, Reinventing Axl Rose.

Even after she started incorporating Against Me! songs, it seemed to be an almost Kurt Cobain-style set, by which I mean that it seemed to be designed to subvert expectations. Sure, some of the old hits were in there, but there were a good deal of classics that were skipped and, meanwhile, she worked in some songs like “Crash” that aren’t as big audience favorites. It seemed she was more interested in playing what she wanted than playing what was expected, and she did a great job of selling the audience on the idea that every song she played was exactly the right song for that moment.

This was my first time seeing her play with the Mississippi Medicals lineup, which includes Grace’s wife, Paris Campbell Grace, on backing vocals. I really do think that Paris’ higher-pitched voice perfectly compliments Laura’s lower register, and it was especially helpful because the altitude was definitely making it a challenge for Laura to sing. I could especially see her struggling on “Thrash Unreal” where she couldn’t quite hit the higher notes from the studio version, and yet the song was infused with every bit of that Laura Jane Grace punk rock spirit, so it didn’t really matter what her voice sounded like; it was still transcendent.

In the end, Grace reminded me of her amazing ability to reinvent herself, to change things up, and to keep anything from getting boring. Perhaps that’s why her solo project has gone through so many iterations, from Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers, to Laura Jane Grace, to Laura Jane Grace and the Mississippi Medicals, and then finally to Laura Jane Grace in the Trauma Tropes. Every new version of her solo career seems to indicate a rebirth for her, and that’s what makes her one of the most vital artists in the punk scene even after decades in the game.

Photo by @nessiahu on Instagram