After touring Europe, the UK, Canada, and most of the United States, Been Stellar found themselves back home in New York playing Bowery Ballroom on Friday night to celebrate their debut album Scream from New York. As the name suggests—there was screaming from both the revved-up crowd and the band as they took the stage and went right into their title track off the album.

The venue filled up quickly for the show, with much of the floor and balcony packed even for the opener, New York-based project Malice K. At some point after Malice’s set, I physically felt the crowd behind me get denser as I was pushed up closer against the front of the stage. The audience included many friends and family members of the band, with the lead vocalist Sam Slocum sharing that he recognized a lot of familiar faces alongside new ones. This night was a big one for Been Stellar, with Slocum declaring that they had “dreamt to play [Bowery Ballroom] for a long time.”

Pen-drawn stars, matching the one on the album cover, adorned the stage, and the band even sketched them at the top of their setlist. These stars capture the what I feel while listening to Been Stellar’s music: like doodling in a notebook while reflecting on the world around me. This matched the show’s vibe, with each band member moving and jumping around the stage in their unique way, while the crowd nodded along, slightly out of sync with one another but connected to the music.

This energy kept up throughout the show while the band played all of the songs off their new album (except “Can’t Look Away”). Things settled down a bit and got more intimate as Slocum pulled out an acoustic guitar (his only instrument of the night aside from a tambourine) for “Takedown.” The dancing and head-nodding quickly picked back up for “All In One” and “Kids 1995,” the latter of which Slocum dedicated to their manager, Lauren, saying, “We don’t know where we’d be without her.”

Been Stellar fittingly closed the night with “I Have The Answer,” the last song off of Scream from New York, NY.

Words and photos by Bobby Nicholas

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Been Stellar at the Bowery Ballroom January 24th 2025 photo by Bobby Nicholas III