Meet Me @ the Altar Turn Chicago's House of Blues Into an Inclusive Pop-Punk Haven

"I'm a bitch and my band is an industry plant, 'least that's what it says on the internet."

That's not just the beginning lyric to Meet Me @ the Altar's hit single "Say It (To My Face)". It's...the truth (as far as what's being said on the internet goes), and further proof that we still by and large can't have nice things these days.

The origin story of Meet Me @ the Altar (you're goddamn right I'm shortening that to MM@TA from here on 0ut) is something that didn't seem like it could have been possible a decade ago, but might be the more common moving forward than not: a band forming remotely over video chat. Telecommuting: It's not just for work anymore. THE SHORT VERSION: Orlando native Téa Campbell (guitar, bass) met Jersey-born Ada Juarez (drums) after connecting over a cover version she had done of a Twenty One Pilots song. Shortly after, they completed their musical East coast triangle by bringing Atlanta's Edith Victoria into the fold. The rise the band saw in the few years following (tours, signing to a major label, magazine covers, etc) should have been a pop-punk fairy tale for the young trio.

But as we all know, no one can have anything nice without being torn down by hateful trolls with nothing better to do. The fact that the trio are all women of color and two of them are gay in a genre almost overrun by straight, white men makes them a popular target for closed-minded detractors. Shouts that they were only popular because of their demographic makeup and not due to their musical abilities were shouted from behind Pepe avatars on social media.

This all happened before the band had even released a full-length album.

Almost a year after releasing their debut album Past // Present // Future, MM@TA rolled into Chicago with the absolutely stacked Say It To My Face Tour, featuring Honey Revenge, John Harvie, and Elliot Lee in support. The bill promised an evening of all-ages female-fronted rock and roll and as the capacity crowd filed into Chicago's House of Blues, it didn't seem like any online discourse against the band affected their support one single iota.

Over the last year or so of reviewing concerts, I've been to my fair share of them that were labeled 'all ages', but this is probably the first one where a quick scan of the crowd would immediately confirm this. The age range was probably 11 or 12 on the young end with some fans seemingly in their late 40's (that weren't even there as parents!) if I had to make my best guess. It's tough to tell these days, what with modern skincare routines what they are and all that.

That kind of uncertainty when it comes to age extended to the first act of the evening, Brooklyn singer Elliot Lee. A diminutive presence onstage physically and dressed head to toe in what looks like the perfect combination of sweatpants/pajamas/pillows, you wouldn't be wrong assuming Lee was just a teenager (actual age: 27). But don't let Lee's stature fool you - they've got an absolutely powerhouse voice that can cut from 'dark and moody' to 'fearsome shout' at the drop of a hat.

Lee's music is just as contradictory of a mix. With a sound that's been called everything from 'bubblegum pop' to 'nightcore' tossing electronic beats into a murky mix with catchy instrumental clips, it's almost disorienting how many different sounds and moods can come through in a single song. Add in Lee bouncing between semi-rapped verses and Billie Eilish-esque haunting choruses, and you get a real feel for something that's somehow dark, but energetic. Lee's music is like slipping into a nice, hot bath that could also contain krakens and other sea monsters lurking just under the surface.

Representing the Midwest on a pop-punk tour is a tall order. The Midwest, home of the 'opening guitar riff played over a breakup voicemail' and some of the bleakest states in the country, is basically a breeding ground for pop-punk and emo. Louisville-born and Nashville-based John Harvie represented all of us Midwestern emo kids. Yes, I know that Tennessee and Kentucky don't fall into what is traditionally referred to as the Midwest, but with the other bands on the bill being from either the East Coast or California, it's as close as we're gonna get.

Harvie brought frat-party energy to the stage with his performance, almost seeming like it wasn't enough to get the entire audience singing and dancing with his songs - he had to sing louder and dance more. While that kind of one-upsmanship can sometimes backfire, Harvie proved more than up to the task, ripping through a half-hour set of straight up, no-frills pop-punk music. There's a certain charm that he brings to the stage during his performances, like the ultimate everyday dude. Like you can tell that he's having fun being completely himself onstage, and it makes you have more fun in response. That's not something you get out of every act that rolls through town. I doubt that when Justin Timberlake plays a venue, he lists off the other notable acts that have played that venue and, therefore, shared a toilet with. Harvie mused between songs about most likely "taking a shit on the same toilet as Fall Out Boy" and that's exactly the kind of thing I would immediately Google if I was a musician on tour.

When Honey Revenge embarked on The Retrovision Tour late last year, Chicago did not have a stop, and the fair people of this great city were deprived of having their lives changed through the sheer power of pop-rock. Seemingly looking to make up for that missed time, singer Devin Papadol, guitarist Donovan Lloyd and the rest of the band rampaged through an absolutely blistering set that threatened to upstage even the headliners on the evening. And honestly, from the way the crowd responded to hits like 'Airhead', 'Rerun', and live favorite 'Habitual', you wouldn't be wrong thinking they were. Their rock/dance/funk combo sound (think PVRIS but way more fun) lends itself perfectly to being performed live and loud.

Lloyd's ability to throw down the abnormally hooky riffs each song is built around while still giving Papadol's voice plenty of space of its own to fill things in is impressive to see. Really, the kind of rapport the entire band has onstage is really one of the biggest factors that raises their live performance from "great" to "mind blowing". Watching Papadol bounce across the stage, using every limb of her body just as effectively as her voice when it comes to getting a point across, you can see how her performance, as well as the rest of the bands, is primed for amphitheaters and arenas.

Ok, can we just stop for a second and go back to the 'industry plant' criticism that's constantly thrown at MM@TA? What does that even mean? Is that referring to a band that's being pushed by the press to be the next big thing? Oh, you mean...marketing? Like, isn't the point of being a band using all the tools at your disposal to expose the biggest number of people to your music and let them decide if they like it or not?

NEWS FLASH: Every band ever is an industry plant. They are planted there to be popular and successful. Also, I'm getting reports on the news desk now that Pepsi, Southwest Airlines, and Bluey are all industry plants as well. I'll give you all a moment to mourn. Will you always remember where you were when you found out?

I apologize for the slight bit of nonsense (hahaha no I don't), but it just goes to show what ridiculous circular logic people will go to in order to find something to hate about a band that they've already made their mind up about before listening to them perform a single note. Do I think MM@TA is 'saving' pop-punk music? Of course not, mostly because (as the entire bill this evening overwhelmingly proved) pop-punk doesn't need saving. Why do they need to be labeled as saviors? Why do they need to be labeled as force-fed to an unsuspecting public? Can't they just be a band that makes catchy pop-punk music for their adoring fans while still being an inspiration to people looking for more inclusive lineups in the acts they listen to?

Because that's exactly what they are. Strip everything else away, and what you're left with is a trio that seems to crank out brain-breakingly catchy pop-punk filled with earworm choruses designed perfectly for shouting at the top of your lungs.

Singer Edith Victoria gets a lot of the spotlight (as most frontpeople do), and there's good reason for that. A vocal powerhouse with a sound perfectly tailored to this kind of music, she's a magnetic presence onstage with barely a moment going by where she isn't hopping up and down or smiling ear to ear (usually both at the same time). But the more I watched MM@TA work their way through 12 song setlist (with over half the songs off Past // Present // Future), the clearer it was how much under-appreciated work Campbell and Juarez put in on each track. Victoria's soaring choruses on her performance of 'Garden' wouldn't seem nearly as epic without the absolutely frenetic breakdowns and runs Campbell shreds on the guitar or what impossibly sounds like three feet pumping the bass drum from Juarez hammering the momentum of every song forward at a breakneck pace.

Saving the previously mentioned 'Say It (To My Face)' for last, it was the perfect culmination for the entire evening. Written as a middle finger to every online troll hiding anonymously behind a keyboard and screen, the song acted as a cathartic release for a crowd of people that was about as diverse in age and demographics as humanly possible. The fact that the diversity and varied backgrounds extended to the performers onstage just served to strengthen the bond built throughout the night. After an evening of songs tackling complicated subjects like bad relationships, anxiety, and acceptance, it was refreshing to send the audience off into the cold Chicago night with a positive step in their walk and a defiant fist raised in the air.

Meet Me @ the Altar's Say It To My Face! Tour continues through February 21. Dates and tickets can be found here.

Meet Me @ the Altar Setlist - House of Blues, Chicago 2.3.24

Same Language
Now or Never
Beyond My Control
Try
May the Odds Be in Tour Favor
Hit Like a Girl
It's Over for Me
Since U Been Gone/Take Me Away/Burnin' Up cover montage
T.M.I.
Garden
Kool
Say It (to My Face)