"I wish I could talk to you" about this awesome concert! | Lucy Samuels
Oct. 22, 2024 AT THE RITZ
Ricky Montgomery has been a staple of my quintessential “yearning” playlist on Spotify ever since I discovered him in 2018, my freshman year of highschool. It was the perfect time to imagine romances and heartbreaks that awaited me throughout the years to come. As a long time Ricky fan, I was elated when my friend Hannah, the concert queen, offered me her tickets for the “Rick(y)” tour on an unassuming Tuesday night.
My friend Jenna and I made the traffic filled trek to The Ritz in Raleigh, NC for the 7pm concert on October, the 22nd. We listened to Ricky all the way to the venue in the car as we debated which songs he would play live. We arrived early and sat ourselves near the front of the line outside the venue as we eagerly waited to get let in. I was surprised at how small the venue was! But when I was informed that Mitski had played there during her Laurel Hell tour, I knew I was in for a good time. The venue was general admission and in front of the stage was a horde of sad, excited Ricky Montgomery fans who whooped and hollered as we waited for him to run out on stage. The numbness in my knees from standing the whole night was promptly overridden by 3 hours of amazing live music.
The opener, a 3 person band named Nep, came out and wowed us with a solid 5 song setlist, consisting of some of their biggest hits: “A Big Brown Dog Named Bagel”, “Milk Town”, and “Cotton Tail.” They were extremely energetic and just as excited about Ricky as the crowd was!
Around 9pm Ricky and his band (clad in white jumpsuits) ran on stage and immediately started performing “Line Without a Hook”. The band was absolutely fantastic and had tons of energy to match Ricky. The drummer especially got me excited as I head banged a long to some of his higher energy songs. After playing one of my favorites, “Talk to You”, he asked the crowd what we would like to hear next. More than anything, I wanted to hear my favorite Ricky song, “Get Used to It”, so I made sure to shout it out last when the crowd had quieted down. So when he announced that he would indeed be playing “Get Used to It” after convening with his band, I screamed wildly and shook my friend Jenna with excitement. She's a trooper.
Unfortunately, Ricky informed the crowd that his record label had recently dropped him. So he did what song writers do… and wrote a song about! He debuted his newest single “Superfan” which has a fun folksy vibe to it with some funny Taylor Swift shade thrown in.
There was a great mix of tone and rhythm throughout the show. The first half was a super up-beat that had Ricky and his band dancing, jumping, and headbanging on stage. He then slowed it down with songs like “Ethan’s Song” and “Snow” (which had the person next to me sobbing, rightfully so). He also threw in a spooky addition with “Unknown Phantom” for Halloween which had the crowd “ba ba ba baaa-ing” our way through the chorus.
And of course his encore were two of his more popular songs: “Mr. Loverman” and “This December”. Ricky’s music is popular for anime tik tok edits, so popular in fact that he has a whole album dedicated to the remixed audios. During “Mr Loverman” a fan dressed up as Gojo (from the anime Jujutsu Kaisen) raised their little anime dolls in the air. But personally, I went all out to “This December” and was rather upset to see that no one else in my vicinity was headbangning along with me. Alas…
… This concert was the first one I had been to in a while and I gladly walked out of the venue with my ears ringing full of Ricky's tunes. Jenna and I promptly had “Talk to You” stuck in our heads the whole car ride back.
All photos courtesy of Jenna Moylan
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