Anxiously peering at my phone, I crossed the street toward the hipsterized venue, The Music Hall of Williamsburg, where one lone fan sat against the rolling metal hardware of the building. 

As I approached her, I asked if she was there for the Adam Melchor concert. Following the confirmation, I sat down beside her. A few moments later, two people about my age walked up to our makeshift line and introduced themselves as Melissa and Liam. Melissa asked where I went to school, and a surprised look lit up her eyes when we discovered we are both Fordham Lincoln Center students.

I discovered that this was Melissa LoPiccolo, FCLC ’24, also known as the indie-pop artist Melissa Joy. Melissa also calls Melchor her “comfort artist,” and after the concert told me that “Every song he has feels like it’s being sung directly to me.” 

Meeting Melissa was an alignment that calmed my solo-concert-goer nerves. I immediately felt more in tune with the reason I went to the concert — to hear songs that helped me and many other Melchor fans through an otherwise monotonous pandemic-ridden year.

To establish a sense of normalcy during a quarantine, in February 2020, indie-folk artist Adam Melchor created a phone number to text his fans a new song every Sunday. The phone number was dubbed the “Lullaby Hotline,” now the title of his first album with freshly mixed songs, some of which he played at his New York show on Nov. 5.

Along with the song release on Sundays, Melchor would often live stream. Streaming became a way for fans to connect with each other over Melchor’s verbal antics and acoustic anthems. 

Moments later, the VIP line separated from the General Admission ticket holders, and I found myself in the small venue staring down the stool where Melchor did his acoustic set of songs from the streams and hotline.

“If there’s one thing that always feels good, it’s doing something with somebody else, and going on a journey together with somebody.” Adam Melchor

During the VIP acoustic set, there was a surrealism in the respectful cheers following the song “Happier Alone,” from the Lullaby Hotline releases, along with a mashup of the unofficially released “Lactose Intolerant”  and officially released “No Way of Knowing.” After watching these songs through a screen for two years and conversing with fellow fans, it was inexplicable to me that such an intimate concert experience was possible once more.

Once the opening act, Field Medic, exited with uproarious cheers sending him off stage, Melchor entered with the glow of diffused colored lighting and played through his yearning introduction song “Last Time,” along with a hopeless-romantic rocker, “I Choose You.” Even in the second row of the pressing crowd, I could hear the cheers of his friends, family and fans. Before the third song, he stopped and beamed with gratitude, let out a slew of thank yous, and claimed he did not know what else to say and would likely never stop thanking us all night.

The entire show felt like watching a close friend have the best party of their life. Reciprocating and resonating with the energy from that night brings to mind one of the Lullaby Hotline texts from September. Melchor played a song called “Honey.” Over the instrumentals, he droned to his fans, “And, if there’s one thing that always feels good, it’s doing something with somebody else, and going on a journey together with somebody, whether you know them as the love of your life, or never even met them once. This is a rare opportunity for us to feel what everyone’s feeling.” 

Adam Melchor’s headline tour proved his consistency in providing a cosmic level of comfort and connection within his fanbase.