AJR, the indie-pop band made up of brothers Adam, Jack and Ryan Met, delivered a memorable performance Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena.
As the brothers told the audience, they write, record and produce all of their music in their living room. During the evening, Jack mainly sang lead vocals, Adam mostly played bass, and Ryan mostly played the keyboard.
The Maybe Man Tour began, appropriately enough, with the brothers’ title song, “Maybe Man,” from their latest record, which was released last year. The first tune featured multiple Jacks wearing blue-and-white plaid flannels and his signature aviator trapper hat.
Many families were in attendance, and some kids were wearing replicas of the hat, which Jack is known for wearing during every AJR performance.
“Pittsburgh, how we doing? Are we OK?” Jack yelled to the audience after the second tune — the high-energy number, “Sober Up.”
Jack told the audience he always tries to come up with something to say that’s “cool and confident,” but he always forgets it once the lights turn on.
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AJR then played another song from the new album, “Yes I’m a Mess,” which displayed imagery of different places on the background, including walking down the street, through an office building and on the roof into a vivid explosion.
The brothers also played a mashup of “I Won’t/Birthday Party,” which they said was inspired by a fan’s cover they saw online. The rendition included an illusion background.
“We heard it, and it sounded really good,” Ryan said. “We’re going to do a cover of a fan doing a cover of our music.”
Next, AJR played “The DJ is Crying for Help,” which featured a violin solo; “God is Really Real,” a prominent slow tune of the evening; and “The Good Part,” a throwback to the band’s 2017 album, “The Click,” with light-up trees in the background.
Arguably one of the most memorable performances of the night was the band’s popular tune, “Bang!,” the lead single from their fourth album, “OK ORCHESTRA,” which was released in 2021. Adam called it their “weirdest” song to date.
With the stage shrouded in dark red and black, AJR sang the iconic number, which featured an impressive drum break.
Jack then told the audience that the brothers like to take their ear monitors off and point out various people they’ve noticed in the crowd. A concertgoer on the floor with a banana hat was among those selected, and Ryan took the hat to wear for a little while.
“This is something I like to do during every show,” he said, as the ear monitors can be “very isolating.”
AJR has been playing shows in Pittsburgh for around eight years, and the brothers said the first show they headlined in the city was at Stage AE for around 1,000 people. Tuesday night’s show had approximately 11,000, they said.
“You know, we’ve been doing this a long time,” Jack said. “Just to show you guys how unbelievably rare this is — this really doesn’t happen in our industry.”
Up next, the band played two more tunes from its newest album: “Inertia,” which included a trumpet solo; and “Touchy Feely Fool,” which displayed a space-themed background. The latter is one of the band’s more underrated songs.
Jack sang “Karma” while literally floating in space in the air (actually suspended from the stage on cables). The background simulated a fall toward Earth.
Ryan also had a solo moment, performing a trilogy of songs: “Turning Out/Turning Out Pt. ii/Turning Out Pt. iii,” which inspired attendees to switch on their phone lights.
For “World’s Smallest Violin,” which is currently sitting at No. 1 on AJR’s Spotify profile, and “Steve’s Going to London,” the band members trekked up to the nosebleed seats for a sing-along.
“Burn the House Down” was one of the biggest crowd-pleasers of the night, as it’s another popular song from “The Click” album. It was a funky jam, with a fiery background.
The brothers then showed the audience how they loop tracks and sounds to create their music in their living room before they transitioned into another hit, “Way Less Sad,” which even featured sounds from old home movies to create the backing track.
AJR closed out the show by playing “Don’t Throw Out My Legos” with its techno vibes, and “100 Bad Days,” which was performed after the brothers pranked the audience with a fake light falling onstage.
For their encore, AJR played “Weak” and “2085,” ending the show on a personal note, with all of the brothers and band members lined up at the front of the stage.
Jack talked about how the brothers were bullied in high school, referencing those down the line at record labels who weren’t fans of the band.
“It feels like everyone has some opinions,” he said. “Every step of the way, there’s been one thing that’s kept us from listening to those people — that was our dad.”
The brothers lost their dad last year as they were in the process of finalizing their latest album, “The Maybe Man,”according to NPR.
Jack said their dad told the boys they would one day meet people who see the world in the same way they do.
“On his last day … in the hospital, he said, ‘Don’t ever spend one second of your life not being yourself,’” Jack told the audience a heartfelt message at the end of the last tune. “Go be the biggest version of yourself — life is really short.”
Singer-songwriter/YouTuber mxmtoon and California indie pop band Almost Monday opened the night for AJR.
Maia, known professionally as mxmtoon, said her grandfather is from Pittsburgh, and Tuesday night was her first time ever playing an arena show. She played her pandemic TikTok hit “Prom Dress” among other bubbly tunes.
Megan Swift is a TribLive reporter covering trending news in Western Pennsylvania. A Murrysville native, she joined the Trib full time in 2023 after serving as editor-in-chief of The Daily Collegian at Penn State. She previously worked as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the Trib for three summers. She can be reached at mswift@triblive.com.
