MACSEAL IN NYC
BY AMBER BINTLIFF
Macseal wrapped up their Spring U.S. Tour on March 22nd at Racket in New York City. The indie rock four-piece hit the road in support of their latest record, Permanent Repeat, and brought Carly Cosgrove and Buffchick along for the ride.
The night began with a lovely performance by Buffchick, a New Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based indie/emo pop singer/songwriter. I was unfamiliar with her songs before this night, but quickly found myself obsessed with “Here Forever” and “when I was pretty” soon after Buffchick left the stage.
Carly Cosgrove hit the stage next with insane amounts of energy radiating off the crowd within the first few moments of their set. They played a bunch of tracks from their last LP, The Cleanest of Houses Are Empty, including “You Old Dog,” “The Impact Of This Exit,” and “Fluff My Pillow.” They also played a handful of older fan favorites, with “Buttersock” and “You Ate My Enchilada!” exciting the audience. The mosh pits were non-stop the entire time Carly Cosgrove was on the stage and it was so much fun to be surrounded by a group of people just wanting to have fun.
Macseal were absolutely incredible live. Their set was so much fun to watch and dance along to. As soon as they started their first song, the energy from the crowd picked up and only continued to get crazier as they played to a nearly sold-out room. Permanent Repeat was one of my favorite records of 2024 and getting to hear most of the tracks from the album live made me love them even more. Some of my personal favorites from the evening included “Beach Vacation” and “Easily Undone.”
The crowd was honestly my favorite part of this entire show! Everyone was so thrilled to be there, and I made friends with several people as the night carried on. Smiles from ear to ear were adorned on people’s faces everywhere I looked. Every person there was just dancing, jumping around, and singing along without a care in the world. Each song felt like a party being in this sea of people. Even if you weren’t directly in the pit, you were still getting moved around every which way. There was also an insane amount of stage diving as the night progressed and both the band couldn’t get enough of it! The community built around the music is sometimes more important than the music itself. Macseal’s ability to connect complete strangers with their art is why live music is so important. I spent the whole night in awe of how this room came together to celebrate their favorite songs and how much fun they had while doing it.
This night was such a perfect way to close the band’s first proper U.S. headliner. Macseal have an amazing stage presence and there wasn’t a second of this show where I wasn’t absolutely enthralled by their performance. From the moment I entered Racket to the very last seconds of Macseal’s set, I was blown away by how much fun this show ended up being. I can’t wait to catch them next time they make their way back to my area!
