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Last week on Tuesday, May 19th, I made the trek to Brooklyn to see one of my current favorite bands: By Storm!!! If you're unaware, By Storm is a duo who used to be the hip hop trio Injury Reserve (RIP Stepa J. Groggs) . They put out their first album as By Storm, My Ghosts Go Ghost, last January and it is still my favorite album of 2026 so far. I was so stoked to hear what it would sound like live.

The venue was a place called Elsewhere. I had been there last year to see the Hyperpop duo Food House. It's a nice, small venue. So small that the artists just walk around the venue same as everyone else until the show starts. I even bumped into By Storm's rapper, RiTchie, on the way to the restroom.

The opener was Lerado Khalil, who was awesome. His producer had the bass so loud in the beats it overpowered everything else. The bass just rattled your bones to the very core. Elsewhere's stage features a giant LED screen on stage. It backlit Khalil with blue light without any lighting in front of him. This left him as essentially a silhouette the entire show. It was so rad. I got to speak with him after the show. Very sweet guy.

Finally...it was time for By Storm. I'll be so real...this was one of the best live shows I've ever been to. The duo always has a series of strobe lights that are operated by Parker Corey (who also live produces the whole set. The guy is goated) and the constant flashing made it all feel like some psychedelic club nightmare. It also made still images of the show look kinda awkward. Trust me, it was amazing in person. Atop this, RiTchie is such an emphatic live artist. He puts so much emotion into every line that adds so much to the already fantastic songs. The live mixes were so amazing. From the very first song they played, Can I Have You For Myself, the way they were adding new delay and fuzz textures made it feel like a Post-Rock song. In one of the last songs they played, Bye Storm, there was an extended outro where the droning sounds were made louder and louder until it became full on harsh noise before being suddenly cut off. There was also quite a lot of sing-along bits. The hooks for songs like Dead Weight, Grapefruit, In My Town, Double Trio 2, and Superman That had RiTchie singing with the whole crowd. The feeling I had singing all these songs in unison with everyone was so cathartic. As for some specific moments that I loved: the extended outro for Zig Zag which had RiTchie start rapping "hotel motel holiday in" was hilarious. There was a moment when a fan handed them a box of Cliff Bars (in reference to a line in the song In My Town) . When they played the Injury Reserve song, Knees, RiTchie and Parker Corey walked off stage as Grogg's verse played. A really heartbreaking tribute to their friend and a core member of that band. Had the whole crowd bowing their heads in silence out of respect. As for the closer, GGG, which is about the band's experience following Grogg's passing...yeah I cried. This is the third time I cried at a concert (before this I cried at Carly Rae Jepsen in 2023 and Jeff Rosenstock in 2024) . Such a beautiful song and you could tell the two guys get a lot of emotional catharsis out of performing it.

After the show the two guys tried to quickly sign everyone's records and CDs. They said to everyone before they left the stage that they weren't doing "any life stories or pics" because Elsewhere wanted to hurry everyone out of the venue as soon as possible. I got my record signed and got to give them each a good handshake and thank them for the show and their music before heading back home. Absolutely magical experience.

OH BTW I brought my 3DS to the venue and actually got a streetpass from someone from Florida. If that person somehow happens to be here, PLS MESSAGE ME!!! YOU'RE SO RAD!!!

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