Meet Me @ The Altar brought The Say It To My Face Tour to Boston’s legendary Paradise Rock Club last Sunday night for a set filled with great music, crowdsurfing, and a wonderful display of female empowerment and women in rock music. With support from Elliot Lee, John Harvie, and Honey Revenge, it was a stacked night with something for everyone to enjoy.
Elliot Lee opened up the night with a genre-bending set from experimental electronic music to a beautiful acoustic rendition of “Easy To Be You,” a song dedicated to Lee’s experience as a member of the LGBTQ community. They mentioned that they had seen their favorite artist right in this venue before, and you could tell how special of a show it was for Lee to perform (and they had bubble machines!)
John Harvie may have stood out a bit amongst his tattooed and pastel-colored hair stagemates, but his vocal talent and stage presence proved that he was exactly where he belonged. With just himself and a guitar, Harvie captivated the Boston audience with a mix of pop songs and heavier rock songs, and he certainly had some fans of his own in the crowd singing along with the lyrics.
Last up before Meet Me @ The Altar was LA-based pop-rock band Honey Revenge, and about halfway through the set, lead singer Devin Papadol asked the crowd if anyone had crowd surfed before and enthusiastically welcomed fans to make this their first time. For the remainder of the set, fans had an absolute blast in this special kind of safe space that I’ve found exists quite often at rock and hardcore shows.
Finally it came time for Meet Me @ The Altar to take the stage. Lead singer Edith Victoria and her bandmates Téa Campbell and Ada Juarez took to the stage in a burst of energy and jumped right into their opening song “Same Language.” Song after song the trio continued with “Now or Never” and “Beyond My Control.” The stage presence of all three members was absolutely incredible, and Victoria especially was not afraid to get up close and personal with the fans who had been waiting for hours in the front row.
Pretty early on into the set the band had the crowd choose between “May The Odds Be In Your Favor” which was released as a single back in 2020, and “A Few Tomorrows” from their new album Past // Present // Future which was released just last year in 2023. The vote was close, but “May The Odds Be In Your Favor” was crowned the winning song. The band followed this up with the empowering “Hit Like a Girl” before launching into some covers: “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson and “Burnin’ Up” by the Jonas Brothers. They closed with the tour title track “Say It (To My Face)” before thanking the Boston crowd and leaving the stage.
Meet Me @ The Altar is one of those groups that I kept missing every time they would tour in Boston, and I’m so glad I finally got to catch their set. These women are the perfect example of a powerful, female-led rock group and I hope to continue to see them grow over the years. The pop-punk trio is about halfway through their current tour and will continue playing shows in the midwest and west coast before returning to the east coast to wrap up their tour in Nashville, TN at the end of February. After this, the band will be taking a brief break from touring to write their next album.
