Whoever dwells in the realms of heavy music should have heard of POLYPHIA by now. The American progressive rock band recently undertook a European tour and managed to sell out most of their stops. We decided to join the massive queue outside of Fabrik in Hamburg an hour before POLYPHIA‘s showtime to them check out for ourselves on May 17th, 2023.
The support act of the evening was Johan Lenox. Eccentrically wrapped around cables and cargo pants, the singer, composer, and producer from Massachusetts entered the stage. For the occasion, he was accompanied by two violinists and a DJ. Whether or not you are familiar with mixes of pop music or hip-hop, Johan Lenox manages to catch attention because of the strong classical elements in his compositions, which effortlessly accentuate every piece of his compositions. After a couple of songs into his set, he gave the audience a short introduction about his personal and musical life, which personally piqued my interest even more and made me decide to listen intently to him. Honestly, more out of skepticism than anything else. It didn’t take long to realize how thoughtful his music actually is, even if his style is not where I would usually take refugee. Johan found his place with catchy pop choruses that get stuck in your head after just having listened to them once (“You Up” and “Get My Shit Together”) and violin passages that highlight the simplicity, but also the relatable nature of his lyrics.
POLYPHIA, a mostly instrumental progressive rock band from Texas, are heavily influenced by classical and virtuoso styles. While that is a mouthful, that’s where the magic of POLYPHIA resides, exactly in the undemanding and joyful way in which they manage to bring their music to their listeners. “Champagne,” one of their first hits, made clear that it is not necessary for a heavy/rock band to make their music easy-paced and accessible to be successful, nor do they necessarily need a singer.
It wasn’t a lot effort for guitarist Scott LePage to tell the audience what song was coming and before he finished talking, the audience was already zooming the main melody of the aforementioned superhit), much to the style of an IRON MAIDEN concert in a fully-packed stadium. They closed their set with one of their more recent classics, “Playing God,” before they left the stage to an audience demanding more. They came back with “G.O.A.T,” followed by a cover of “96 Quite Bitter Beings” from CKY, and ended the night with “Euphoria.”
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Johan Lenox
Polyphia
Photos by Michelle Rosales
