WHY? celebrated ‘The Well I Fell Into’ at Bowery Ballroom (pics, review)

WHY? made their triumphant full-band return to New York at The Bowery Ballroom on Friday (8/23) in support of their fantastic new album, The Well I Fell Into. Brothers Yoni and Josiah Wolf were last seen in NYC in 2022 opening for mewithoutYou during their farewell tour, and while that specific matchup of weirdo art rock made perfect sense, there was something missing in their soundscapes without the additional multi-instrumentalists filling out their sound.

WHY? seemingly took a page from mewithoutYou’s book with their stage presentation this week, with massive bouquets of flowers adorning the entire band’s instruments and mic stands, along with a few other massive potted ferns, and a backdrop of the new record’s cover. This, coupled with their own stage configuration, with Josiah’s drums on stage right, Yoni’s keyboard on stage left, and set ups for both longtime member Doug McDiarmid and new addition Mol Sullivan (whose vocal harmonies were truly astounding) between them, creating a semi-circle that invited the audience into every layer of the soundscapes they crafted.

The band’s setlist encompassed their entire eight-album career, with an emphasis on The Well I Fell Into. Pre-release singles like “The Letters, Etc.,” “Marigold,” and “G-dzillah G’dolah” got the biggest crowd response of the newer material, but for me, deeper cut tracks like “Jump” and “When We Do the Dance” are where they really began to shine. What’s beautiful, to me, about this later stage of the band’s career is how much they’ve continued to explore their expansive instrumental palette. They’ve always played around with genre, and their hip hop roots are never too far from the fore, driven as often as they are by drum and bass forward songs, but there’s just something about these compositions that feels bigger than anything they’ve done before.

Of course, fan favorite 2008 album Alopecia remained in heavy rotation as the night went on, with songs like “These Few Presidents” and “The Vowels, Pt. 2” serving as the loudest singalong moments of the night, and yet it was the one two punch of “This Ole King,” the lead single from their 2017 album Moh Lean, and a cover of Mac Miller’s song “Circles” that brought the house down. For their encore, the group crowded even more tightly together at the center of the stage, and did a triplet of acoustic arrangements that had the room hanging on their every syllable.

Direct support was provided by Los Angeles electronic popster BATHS, whose glitchy, danceable set got the crowd perfectly warmed up for the set that was to come. Pictures by Luke Ivanovich continue below.

WHY? SETLIST
– These Hands
– January Twenty Something
– The Letters, Etc.
– These Few Presidents
– Easy
– When We Do the Dance
– Easy
– This Ole King
– Circles (Mac Miller cover)
– G-dzillah G’dolah
– Nis(s)an Dreams, Pt. 1
– Jump
– Reasons
– Crushed Bones
– The Vowels, Pt. 2

Encore:
– Early Whitney
– Paper Hearts
– Fatalist Palmistry