The Grindhouse Tour - Gameboi and moistbreezy at Purgatory
On the outskirts of Bushwick, Brooklyn, we found ourselves in a quaint bar with a concert venue on the second floor, but what we were about to indulge in was anything but quaint. Purgatory, the bar/venue that hosted the New York stop of the Grindhouse tour, would feature Gameboi, moistbreezy, Graveyardguy and Emily Tressa as the acts of the night. The crowd was especially excited to hear Gameboi perform live since it was both his first and last time performing. In an Instagram post, Gameboi had announced he would be retiring from music for the unforeseeable future. Because of this, fans wanted to get a chance to both meet and hear the artist behind the carefree, lovestruck, fame-obsessed songs that Gameboi is most known for.
Starting off strong, Emily Tressa took the stage as the first opener, playing favorites like “STAR POWER” and “Watching Me,” along with an unreleased song that she teased would be coming soon when speaking with her after the set. Emily had a phenomenal stage presence, instantly bringing the crowd in close, and inciting them to jump around and dance to her every movement. To put it best, Emily Tressa was having a party on stage, equally making the crowd feel like they were all invited to the party.
Soon to follow, Graveyardguy took the stage with a “scary” good set. Performing songs off his 2019 album Here Lies Graveyardguy, including fan favorite “Final Girl” where the crowd was particularly excited to scream the lyrics of Slayyyter’s famous verse back to him. The audience was also excited to hear Graveyardguy perform his latest single “Guts,” fittingly released before this past Halloween. Graveyardguy is an artist who has a specific vision and knows how to execute it both online and in person. The creepy, sleazy, and campy persona was so much fun to watch on stage and the audience had such a fun time embracing that vision and aesthetic during the set.
Once the openers had finished their sets, Gameboi graced us with a set filled with songs from both his second album Climax, and his first self-titled album. Some fan favorites performed were songs like “Staryeyed,” “Review” with Graveyardguy, “Kinky” and, of course, “Ken Doll” where the crowd was fully energized, dancing to the reworked queer fantasy of Ken and Barbie that Gameboi had created. With every song, he was engaged and even interacted with individuals from the crowd throughout the set. When speaking with Gameboi after the show, we explicitly asked him why he was retiring from music. He explained that he was getting to a point where he wanted to explore other avenues in his career and become less public-facing for the foreseeable future. To our delight, Gameboi mentioned that perhaps this may not be the official end of music for him, and there could be a chance he would come back, but not anytime soon.
Closing out the night, moistbreezy exploded onto the stage, playing songs from her 2023 album Pure Imagination like “Planet Pleasure” and “Once In A Lifetime” as well as her recent single “Like OOO La La La.” Her stage presence was impeccable. moistbreezy left everything on and off the stage as she also joined the fun in the crowd to dance alongside them. Going to a moistbreezy show is all about fun and high energy and she left the crowd wanting more.
The Grindhouse Tour was full of surprises, energy and nonstop dancing. For those who were lucky to see this show, the New York stop was a night to remember.
