Review: Supergroup boygenius bonds with an enthusiastic sold-out crowd at the Mann in first-ever Philly show

In this equation, 1 + 1 + 1 = much more than 3 for Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus, who all have healthy careers of their own but have exploded in popularity since combining talents as boygenius.

Evidence of that was everywhere at the Mann Center on Saturday as the trio played to an extremely enthusiastic sold-out crowd of over 12,000 in a 100-minute show, capping off a pop culture summer that — from Barbie to Beyoncé to Taylor Swift — brandished the buying power of women and teenage girls.

Supergroups rarely function successfully for long, but so far boygenius seems to be an exception. The three emotionally acute, steely-minded songwriters share a tendency toward melancholy with a welcome dose of rage.

They met while crossing paths on the road in 2018, with Baker and Dacus bonding over reading Henry James at a gig in Washington and Dacus and Bridgers meeting at the NON-COMMvention in Philadelphia.

The debut boygenius EP the trio released later that year mixed songs written separately with ones worked on together, but besides Dacus’ “Leonard Cohen,” all of the band’s gripping 2023 album, The Record, is fully collaborative.

Saturday’s show signaled that togetherness. Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” was cranked up on the sound system as an intro, though that declaration was only half true, since this was in fact boygenius’ first-ever Philadelphia show.

Dacus, who moved here from Richmond, Va., in 2019, noted as much, though she added that “I wrote a lot of these songs here.” She also shouted out anyone who had come to a 2022 show of hers scheduled for the Mann’s Skyline Stage that was canceled due to severe weather.

Saturday’s show began with Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus, still backstage singing “Without You Without Them,” The Record’s tender, empathetic opening track about family and friendship, in close harmony.

That sense of kinship permeates the boygenius experience, with the obvious deeply felt affection between the three members, all of whom identify as queer, carrying over to their audience of mostly young women (and in many cases, their moms).

After the backstage beginning of the show, the trio ran out to join the four members of their backing band of bassist Tiana Ohra, drummer Madden Klass, keyboard player Sarah Goldstone, and multi-instrumentalist Melina Duerte.

They then slammed into the AC/DC-ish hard rockers “$20” and “Satanist,” sending the immediate message that this would not be an evening dedicated solely to acoustic-based, sad-eyed folk rockers.

Boygenius is really good at that particular idiom, with Bridgers’ whispery intimate delivery, Dacus’ plainspoken approach, and Baker’s soaring, heaven-sent vocals.

The latter took the lead on “Powers,” a song from the band’s EP The Rest, due Oct. 13, which was performed for the first time live on Saturday, starting out strummy and building into something grander.

Dacus took the lead on “Bite the Hand,” a deft exploration of an artist’s need to please themselves first, rather than pander to their audience’s perceived desires.

The band members have demonstrated solidarity on that theme by getting matching tooth tattoos on their wrists. That said, the song was also a people-pleasing highlight of the show.

Cameras panned the front of the orchestra pit, showing ecstatic young fans singing along, plus one much older man, who flashed a handmade T-shirt that read “Boomers For Boygenius!” driving the crowd into further delirium.

And that was just one of the show’s smartly staged performance pieces. For “We’re in Love,” Dacus left the stage and got intimate with the crowd, singing while slowly walking atop the barrier that divides the orchestra pit and the seats behind it while holding pink chrysanthemums.

But the most dramatic moments of the night featured Bridgers, who was back in Philly after opening for Swift three times at the Linc in May.

On “Me and My Dog” — about having a panic attack on stage and feeling an intense need for comfort — the sky lit up with phones in flashlight mode offering emotional support. Booker and Dacus joined her in singing about the need for escape: “I wish I was on a spaceship, just me and my dog and an impossible view.”

Then, minutes later, Bridgers asked the crowd to put their phones away. Miraculously, compliance seemed nearly universal, and she left the stage to move though the aisles for “Letter to an Old Poet,” a Rainer Maria Rilke update that’s a highlight of The Record.

It’s a quietly devastating song about leaving a toxic relationship and embracing your self-worth: “You don’t get to tell me to calm down,” Bridgers sang, as the crowd stood agog, amazed that a boygenius walked among them. “You make me feel like an equal, but I’m better than you, and you should know that by now.”

New York indie pop songwriter and bandleader Samia started the show with a spirited set drawn largely from her 2023 album Honey. She seemed genuinely taken aback by the warmth of her reception from the Mann audience, though she got her biggest affirmation when she said that “it’s honestly the honor of a lifetime to be opening for the greatest band in the world.”

Boygenius set list at the Mann Center in Philadelphia, Sept. 30, 2023.

“Without You Without Them”

“$20″

“Satanist”

“Emily I’m Sorry”

“True Blue”

“Cool About It”

“Souvenir”

“Bite the Hand”

“Revolution 0″

“Stay Down”

“Leonard Cohen”

“Please Stay”

“Favor”

“Graceland Too”

“Powers”

“Me & My Dog”

“We’re in Love”

“Anti-Curse”

“Letters to an Old Poet”

“Not Strong Enough”

“Ketchum, ID”

“Salt in the Wound”