Age of Madness
Date: February 4, 2024
Location: City Winery, Boston, MA
Jeremy Jordan and his band Age of Madness played a sold out show in Boston earlier this month. I was ecstatic to see Jeremy perform live as I loved seeing him on Supergirl, Smash and Newsies. Aside from music, Jeremy is a well-known Broadway star. His playbill includes Waitress, Westside Story, and Bonnie and Clyde. He will actually return to Broadway where he will star as Jay Gatsby in the Great Gatsby musical!
His band, Age of Madness consist of Jeremy’s college friend, Mikael on guitar and Sarah Charness on violin. The band is named after a revered fantasy books series.
City Winery
The concert took place at Boston’s City Winery. It’s one of my favorite concert venues because the venue is small and enclosed. Also, you get to enjoy wine and dinner while listening to your favorite artist. Moreover, the acoustics are excellent.
The only downside of City Winery is the servers walking around the tables and sometimes blocking your views of the stage.
Previously, I saw BBMAK perform at City Winery prior to the pandemic.
The Concert
Age of Madness brought a great audience mixture to the sold out Sunday night show. There were people of all ages. Couples out on dates. Girls out with their girlfriends. Families. And people who went alone like me.
The group played an unplugged set with no back up music band. During the show, they incorporate story-telling into each performance. Before each song, Jeremy briefly talks about how each song gets created.
The setlist included their songs “Red Lines, White Lies” and “Give It Up”. Age of Madness also covered Radiohead’s “Creep”.
My favorite performance was definitely the stripped down acoustic version of their song, “Hallowed”. “Hallowed” is a very somber and emotional ballad, deepening the mood of the concert. Jeremy’s vocals truly shine in the song and blend well with Mikael’s guitar and Sarah’s violin playing.
I also want to say Sarah is one badass violin player. She is super talented. The way she moves, how she pulls the strings with the bow and plucks the strings. She dances while playing the violin like a boss. Sarah has amazing control over her instrument.
During the concert, I could tell there is solid camaraderie and chemistry amongst the members of Age of Madness. As the show progresses, Jeremy did stumble a little on some songs, forgetting the lyrics. But, he recovered and even laughed and joked about it. And the band just restarted the song and moved on. No fuss whatsover. The mess up actually made me appreciate them more. I felt the stumbles allowed the group to develop a genuine human connection with the audience.
They closed the show with an amazing medley of TV theme songs including the one from Game of Thrones.
Post-Show VIP
Meet and Greet with Age of Madness took place after the concert. Their meet and greet format was definitely different from meet and greets I have done with John Legend or 98 Degrees. Usually, the VIP and tour coordinator would ask the fans to line up and each fan would go up to the artist one at a time, briefly talk to them, give them a hug, take a photo and leave.
In contrast, the Meet and Greet with Age of Madness resembled more of an informal after party. Fans were just hanging out in the adjoining room to the main performance room. Jeremy, Mikael and Sarah went around and greeted everyone.
Considering Jeremy is a big broadway and TV star, fans were patient and waited their time to talk to Jeremy to my pleasant surprise. They didn’t crowd around him or hoard him away from other fans.
I’m grateful that I got to briefly talk to Jeremy and express my admiration for his TV and Broadway roles as well as my excitement for his upcoming role as Jay Gatsby in the Great Gatsby musical. He was very humble, friendly and approachable, not to mention extremely handsome. He definitely made an effort to meet every fan in the room. I also got to talk to Mikael and Sarah too.
Overall, I truly enjoyed the Age of Madness’ concert. The concert clearly provided the right chill vibe for a Sunday night.
Full disclosure, I actually was not aware of their music before this concert so I didn’t know what to expect. After this concert, I started to listen to more Age of Madness.
I do recommend checking them out if they ever play a concert in your city!
