Concert Reviews
Forgoing an opener, Mt. Joy brought their “Hope We Have Fun Tour” to TD Garden in Boston on Saturday.
Mt. Joy performs at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. Brent Goldman
Mt. Joy at TD Garden, Boston, Sept. 20, 2025.
For a Los Angeles-based band with roots in Philadelphia, Mt. Joy sure has some genuine love for Boston. But, it’s their focus on community that truly strikes a chord.
Forgoing an opener, Mt. Joy opted for a double set at TD Garden on Saturday night, playing a mix of old and new tracks across their four studio albums.
From bouncing and clapping to “God Loves Weirdos,” a song off the band’s latest album “Hope We Have Fun,” to swaying softly to songs like “Dirty Love” and “Orange Blood” off of older albums, the crowd, wearing light-up wristbands, matched the energy of the music and even soaked in the extended moments for instrumentals.
The band — Matt Quinn on vocals and guitar, Sam Cooper on guitar, Jackie Miclau on keyboards, Sotiris Eliopoulos on drums, and Michael Byrnes on bass — performed under soft lights, which shifted from hues of reds and yellows to blues and pinks. Behind the band, a large screen showed moving graphics, often providing a dreamlike feel to the performance.
The show ran a little under three hours with the band taking the stage around 8:15 p.m., pausing for a 20-minute intermission around 9:10 p.m., and wrapping up a two-song B-stage encore by 10:50 p.m.
Mt. Joy performs at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. – Brent Goldman
A focal point of the performance came about two hours into the show when Quinn took a moment to reflect on hope and humanity, as he introduced the band’s song “Lucy.”
He explained how the band was inspired to write the track after learning that a friend had been diagnosed with multiple brain tumors and had a “difficult prognosis.”
The song, released as a single just ahead of the band’s fourth studio album “Hope We Have Fun” in May, has since connected Mt. Joy to fans who have experienced cancer or similar unimaginable hardships.
In July, on the heels of performing at Newport Folk Festival, Mt. Joy organized a mini concert for young patients at Mass General Brigham for Children with the help of Family Reach, a nonprofit providing financial assistance for families dealing with cancer.
“I think the thing that we wanna share is the hope that we feel when we go into these rooms,” Quinn said of visiting young patients in the hospital. “You know, you expect, when you meet with these people that are in such dark situations, to feel the cloud, but it’s really the opposite. There’s this positive life that beams from people when they rally around each other.”
As the crowd cheered in response to this, Quinn continued, noting how this “beautiful slice of humanity” reminds him that “people can show up for each other, love on each other.”
Quinn connected this to other major events impacting the country and the world, saying “To exist in a timeline with things like Palestine and what’s happening here in the United States, it feels like there’s just this moment maybe for us all. I don’t know that we have the answers, unfortunately, to get out of situations like that, but it does just feel like we’ve lost the plot. And ultimately, we all can be so much better than that – and we are. “
The lead singer explained that despite how easy it is to forget about the good in one another, especially while scrolling social media feeds, “there are so many good people, who just want to love on each other and take care of each other and take care of their families. And that’s the vast, vast majority of people.”
“There’s no better fight than fighting for good and fighting for what’s righteous, so I hope that maybe this song will show us the light that humans are good and that we are going to fight through this and we’re going to stand up for each other when we have to and do what’s right,” Quinn added.
Mt. Joy has a history of putting social activism and community at the forefront of its music, speaking out on political causes and partnering with nonprofits at its shows including Family Reach and Sharing Excess.
Mt. Joy performs at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. – Brent Goldman
They are also no stranger to Boston, as Quinn noted throughout the show.
“What a dream come true to be here with all of you in Boston. We’ve had so many amazing shows over the years in this city,” the singer said.
Quinn, a 2013 graduate of Northeastern University, even reflected back on writing and performing song as a student in Boston, saying “not nearly as many people came to the shows, but this city got me going.”
When the band first announced the TD Garden show in December, Quinn took to Instagram to share what it meant to him and the other members, saying “Years ago, in an apartment on Mission Hill, I wrote Silver Lining while I was a student at Northeastern.
“At the time, I would cold call and email for gigs around town, occasionally I’d get gigs at places like the Middle East upstairs,” he continued. “I’d play songs like Silver Lining and other tunes that would become Mt. Joy songs to mostly my friends that were kind enough to come out and support me. Getting to hear you guys sing some of those same songs with us at the Garden is something 19 year old me would have given anything to see.”
A fan in a “God Loves Weirdos” shirt revels amongst the crowd as Mt. Joy plays TD Garden in Boston on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. – Brent Goldman
The band, which has since gone on to play Boston Calling in 2023 and open for Noah Kahan at Fenway Park, deserves its place on the main stage — and the response of thousands of fans at TD Garden on Saturday was proof of that.
Even as the band grows in popularity, their focus on community remains steady. Just a month before playing the large space at TD Garden, Mt. Joy performed a small pop-up show at The Cantab Lounge, a 137-person venue in Cambridge, as a way to give back to Greater Boston nonprofit personnel and local service members.
On Sunday night, Mt. Joy will keep the music going with another show in Boston, this time at Big Night Live.
Mt. Joy performs a two-song encore on a B-stage at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. – Brent GoldmanSetlist for Mt. Joy at TD Garden, Boston, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2025Set 1 on the main stage
Lemon Tree
Orange Blood
Groove in Gotham
Let Loose
Like a Prayer (Madonna cover)
Highway Queen (Mt. Joy and Maren Morris song)
Don’t It Feel Good
God Loves Weirdos
Ruins
Dirty Love
Johnson Song
Sado
Cardinal
Set 2 on the main stage after a 20-minute intermission
Evergreen
Sheep
Pink Lady
I’m Your Wreck
Rearrange Us
Mt. Joy
Strangers
Lucy
Julia (with Tiny Dancer by Elton John snippet)
Bathroom Light
Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus cover)
Astrovan
Encore on a B-stage
Jenny Jenkins
Silver Lining
Heather AlterisioSenior Content Producer
Heather Alterisio, a senior content producer, joined Boston.com in 2022 after working for more than five years as a general assignment reporter at newspapers in Massachusetts.
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