Greta Van Fleet Make T-Mobile Center a Family Affair With the Starcatcher Tour
kansas city, missouri - may 2, 2024
"We should've started a family band!" I yell to my brother over his concert earplugs and the screaming audience as the stage curtain falls at T-Mobile Center, revealing the four members of Greta Van Fleet—brothers Josh, Jake, and Sam Kiszka and their honorary brother Danny Wagner—resplendent in white, black, and red costuming dripping with beading and jewels.
Credit: Neil Krug
Forget the fame, fortune, and fans. What I really want is a custom-made, beaded, silk-and-velvet wardrobe. Their costume tailoring is immaculate, and the fans respond by treating the show like their personal Met Gala. The crowd is a sparkling sea of rhinestones and glitter that I eagerly join in a vintage, sequined butterfly top that a concessions employee tells me she had back in the 70s. One fan is swathed in a white cape emblazoned with the Starcatcher album logo, and another wears a gilded celestial headpiece. The women’s bathroom is a chorus of compliments on everyone’s outfits and makeup. (According to my brother, the men’s bathroom was completely silent. Their loss.)
As “The Falling Sky” roars across the venue, I can feel the heat of the pyrotechnics from our seats a hundred feet away. Welcome to hell, but in a fun way. It’s the party circle of the inferno, complete with Kansas City’s thundering processions of motorcycles circling the downtown Power and Light District. Add harmonica—which the frontman Josh does—and now you’ve got yourself a good time. The next tune of “The Indigo Streak” is the best of GVF’s relentless sound and rhythmic skill condensed into one song, and its energy is matched by the sweeping “Caravel.”
Josh’s vocals alternate between songbird trills and bird of prey screams. As the frontman, you’d assume his avian counterpart would be a peacock—he has his self-described diva moments—but as he bounds and glides across the stage, throwing in witty crowd interactions, his persona is more that of a magpie: energetic and social with a reputation for collecting shiny things.
Jake’s acoustic guitar makes its debut during “Meeting the Master,” but it doesn’t rock any less than the previous songs. Not only do we meet the master, but we also meet a new bedazzled Josh jumpsuit, of which there will be several throughout the duration of the show. Two spotlights split across the stage as Jake and Josh each perform on a walkway flanking either end of the stage, and the screen divides between them.
“They’re twins!” I point out to my brother, who’s also my wombmate. We’re triplets, but since it’s just the two of us in attendance, maybe we’re also twins for the night.
The concert is a part of our birthday celebrations, and we’re both experiencing GVF live for the first time—me as a devoted fan and him as a Grestie initiate baptized by the fiery performance. I doubt he’s the only one, as the crowd is an eclectic mix of all types of music lovers. There’s the classic rock fans who probably saw Freddie Mercury in person, the teens chaperoned by their parents, and the woman sitting in front of us who speaks to the people beside her in sign language.
For anyone who wasn’t already a fan, the scorching “Heat Above” should’ve burned any doubt away. The deep resonance of an organ and a drum roll explodes into a soaring chorus and vocal runs. In the break between songs, Josh takes a moment to try on sunglasses offered by fans, saying, “Just doing a little shopping. Don’t mind me!” before settling on a pair with his name written across the lenses.
Next is “Highway Tune,” quite possibly the band’s most-played song that I’ve heard at movie theaters and hockey games alike. No matter the venue, it’s immediately distinguishable for its crunchy riff and opening scream. During an instrumental break, the fans clap to Sam’s bass line as Josh tosses white roses to the audience, a band tradition. Once he’s back at center stage, he downs a shot without using his hands. You know, just in case you forgot you were at a rock concert.
The song transitions into an epic Danny drum solo as he’s left alone on the stage to remind everyone that drumming is an act of endurance in addition to rhythmic skill. The best drumming is subtle, holding down the beat with a few flashy moments that keep listeners engaged without drawing attention away from the melody. But when the drums are isolated and self-sustained, it’s a testament to the fact that music isn’t just notes—and Danny delivers. Watch the ending of Whiplash, and you’ll get the hype.
As the solo comes to a crashing climax, the band reappears on a smaller stage on the other end of the floor for the acoustic part of their show. They take their time to greet the audience on the far end of the arena section by section, the fans cheering and waving back when they’re acknowledged. The intimacy of Stage B is what’s needed for the stripped-down cover of the classic “Unchained Melody” consisting of Sam on piano and Josh’s goosebump-eliciting voice.
It might seem surprising to shift from electric guitar shredding to a soulful, crooning song, but it exemplifies the band’s range and their deep appreciation of the context and history of their genre. “Waited All Your Life” and “Black Smoke Rising” adds Jake and Danny on acoustic guitar, the four harmonizing on backup vocals.
Back on the main stage for “Fate of the Faithful,” a repeating refrain is passed between keyboard, vocals, and guitar, its rhythm emphasized by cymbals. Jake stalks from one end of the stage to the other during a haunting, extended guitar solo to open “Sacred the Thread,” pausing at each corner to break the audience’s mesmerized silence and coax them into cheers. A group of guys at the front of our section do air guitar, and they all raise their hands in the rock-and-roll sign of the horns during “The Archer” when Jake plays his guitar behind his head, because of course he can.
The man needs his mandatory—and possibly state-mandated?—time to shred, so much so that he created Mirador, a new band with Ida Mae’s Chris Turpin, and opened his own headlining show by playing five yet-to-be-released songs. Actually, I would describe their set less as playing and more as pillaging because Mirador has the same narrative-focused songwriting as GVF, but their sound is a hint more swashbuckling.
To quote Josh’s introduction to “The Archer,” its poetic songwriting is “romantic, and adventurous, and chivalrous . . . and all of that stuff.” It’s less of a song and more of an epic, its fantasy elements making it a great choice to end the show’s journey before the encore.
Sam opens the encore by playing a bit of “Rhapsody in Blue” on piano. Gershwin at a rock concert? You said this was a party! Well, you can’t spell Gershwin without gin. Danny accompanies on drums while wearing a white cowboy hat, because there’s no rule against adding a little yeehaw to classical music.
The genre-bending interludes combined with GVF’s storytelling conjures a cinematic experience, which makes sense considering the band has expressed their interest in film during interviews. Prior to the curtain falling, a sweeping orchestral piece builds suspense. Their performance is characterized by dramatic techniques—a ringing chord, a pause, anticipatory silence—followed by an abrupt drop back into the song like one scene cutting into the next. Long instrumental breaks evoke the sweep of a camera across a landscape, drawing the audience in and holding them captive.
For “Light My Love,” a celebratory anthem, the stage lights glow in rainbow hues, illuminating the pride flags waving in the audience. During this song at the tour’s premiere in Nashville, fans organized to show support for Josh after he made his relationship with his boyfriend public. Each section of the audience held a colorful slip of paper to their phone flashlight to create a rainbow stretching across the entire venue.
Even though the fans at Kansas City didn’t execute a large-scale project, there’s still a sense of unity and connection. Everyone sways together as their raised voices join. The concert’s spell breaks with the aptly-named “Farewell for Now,” and my brother and I pout at each other during a twin moment when Jake and Josh briefly share the mic, Josh’s arm slung around his brother’s shoulders.
If I've learned anything from being a triplet, it's that it's easy for our individuality to be overshadowed by our connection to each other even though that togetherness is an integral part of our identities. The same can be said for a band’s dynamics. But, what’s a live performance for if not to humanize the musicians outside of their recorded work?
This contextualization is what drew me to the concert as a devoted fan: the tangible sense of each band member’s contributions, the indulgent artistry of extended instrumental interludes and solos, the expansion of the song recordings and hints at future music. My brother’s experience as an introductory fan was just as enjoyable from his focus on the spectacle of the performance. Even without the same familiarity that I have, during the exodus following the concert, he says he’s intrigued and wants to listen to more of Greta Van Fleet’s offerings. Whenever he’s ready, I have a playlist waiting for him.
No matter your level of familiarity with Greta Van Fleet, the Starcatcher tour isn't one to miss. Learn about their upcoming shows here.
