I should probably start this off by saying that, due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances with no blame given and hopefully taken, I was not actually at this show. So, anything I say from this point forward should be filtered through that undeniable fact.

That being said, I really wanted to go to this show. Photographer Brad Bahner made it in my stead and took some excellent shots. But, still, for some reason, I cannot shake the desire to cover this show in something beyond a simple photo recap. So, if you’ll humor me, what I thought I would do for this review is to take my years and years of show-going experience and make absolutely logical suppositions towards how I think the night would have gone for me if I was there. These will be based on observations I make from some of the photos that Brad took. Let’s get scientific up in here.

There’s a very good chance that my completely imaginary recap is going to completely inaccurate. But, I hope you’ll enjoy it either way.

I’m going to start with my assumed gripes about this show. In this photo, I see 0 guitars, 1 synth and 2 people. This could be the opener, as I believe that Generationals is usually more than just 2 people. I could be wrong and the band could have just pared down to its principal parts for this song. But, as a personal fan of Actor-Caster and guitar-heavy songs like “Ten-Twenty-Ten” and “You Say It Too”, I can say with 85% certainty that I would have been turned off by this whole shift to a synth+vocals.

It’s also a pretty natural assumption that this happened quite a bit at Great Scott that night. Bands tend to have a tendency to lean towards their newest material at shows and Generationals’ latest work Alix features a number of tracks that take guitars right out of the picture. One of the ladies in the front of the audience has a bit of an uncomfortable and disinterested “hand on elbow” look, so I might not have been alone in that feeling.

But then again, everyone else seems to be glued into this performance. 3 people are visibly singing along. The rest look like they are stuck in what I will call “absorption-mode” where they’re too busy soaking in a new song or new interpretation of an old song to show any sense of expression on their face. So, there’s a 65% chance I would have been willing to shrug off my dislike of this shift and take a chance on the new material based on being surrounded by willing participants.

While being excited about the prospect of getting used to new material is good and all, this photo calms me down and lets me know that Generationals hasn’t driven too far away from what drew me to them in the first place. Guitars are abound and probably gives solace to those seeking solid ground. I’m 90% sure, based on this photo, that Generationals busted out a few old favorites for the crowd at Great Scott.

And this photo 100% confirms to me that the crowd was into it. I count more than a few people possibly dancing along in the audience to this obviously energetic number. I also see a few taking this opportunity to try and snap photos, which correlates to a need to capture the live energy of the band at the time.

And finally, there is a 85% chance this picture sums my how I would feel this show would have gone. The abundance in synth on the stage demonstrates the band’s shift towards the trend that has been happening in many a indie rock band lately. This shift would most likely detract from my own personal experience with the band. I tend to see bands that try to shift their sound towards an obvious popular trend as a negative. The flashy stage set-up acts as another example that Generationals is trying to take that next step in popularity and musical fame.

However, it also accentuates that Generationals is a band that might be a bit too polished for a venue like Great Scott. Getting to see a band like that in a space like Great Scott lends itself to an experience you can’t easily replicate. Past examples would be the times I have seen Two Door Cinema Club and Bombay Bicycle Club at Great Scott. It also explains the collective wonder in the eyes of the crowd in this picture and the sold out nature of the show on a Sunday night. Maybe next time I’ll be able to actually experience that for myself. But, until then, I’ll wait and just relish in the high probability that everyone else who made this show enjoyed themselves throughly.