5 reasons why you have to see Meet Me @ The Altar live

Even in a pandemic, 2021 was an incredible year for pop-punk trio Meet Me @ The Altar. Their Fueled By Ramen debut EP, Model Citizen, was the highlight, a record which Kerrang! praised for “bringing something new to pop-punk in terms of sound and, more importantly, the very idea of what a pop-punk band can be”. So too did vocalist Edith Victoria, guitarist Téa Campbell and drummer Ada Juarez get back out on the road, playing shows in their native U.S., as well as a short support stint on these shores.

As attentions now turn to the three-piece’s upcoming UK and European appearances – including a debut appearance at Download Festival in June – Meet Me @ The Altar are continuing to prove why they are a band to believe in. Here are five reasons why you have to see pop-punk’s next big thing…

Thanks to the huge success of Model Citizen, Meet Me @ The Altar are already being tipped by many to be pop-punk’s next megastars – something that, according to them, “feels natural…”

Edith Victoria (vocals): “The positive reception to Model Citizen feels really good, but it also feels natural. A lot of people ask us if we feel pressure, and I personally don’t, because I know we’ve all wanted to be in this position. We imagined and pictured ourselves in this position before we were in it, so that’s helped us come to terms with everything. It’s amazing to be living something I used to play out in my brain so often. Seeing this unfold has made us stop and think, ‘We were actually right about this!’”

Despite supporting the likes of Coheed & Cambria – a band whose audience might not ordinarily gravitate towards pop-punk – Meet Me @ The Altar have never been shy about introducing their brand of rock to new crowds…

Téa Campbell (guitar): “We definitely feel confident about our live show. We’ve had the entirety of quarantine and the COVID pandemic to mentally prepare for the shows we’re now getting to play, and we just feel so comfortable and at home on the stage. It feels natural because we’re having fun up there and playing music that we love. I’d go as far as to say it feels like we were born to be on stages, especially bigger stages – if anything, we’re more comfortable on bigger stages than smaller ones…

“We played some big venues in the UK recently as a support band, and we loved our first time in Britain, despite it being freezing! It was definitely too cold for my liking. It was really fun, though, and everyone was super-nice and had great conversations with us. Having done that, I’m confident people will warm to us even more next time. Once we play more often and people start getting to know our music a bit better, I believe we’ll make our mark.”

After going viral with infectious pop-punk anthem Garden – a song which brought praise from blink-182’s Mark Hoppus – Edith, Téa and Ada have earned an unshakable belief in everything else they create…

Téa: “Model Citizen is our baby, and all of those songs are really close to our hearts. Mapped Out is one I especially love to play every night because it’s so fun. It was written with the live show in mind, so now getting to perform it all the time after imagining what that might be like is really cool. Garden is another awesome one to play – when people sing that back to us really loud it feels so great, because that’s exactly what we wanted to get out of that song.”

Ada Juarez (drums): “Now Or Never is my favourite to play as a drummer because it gets everyone’s heads popping, and then the half-time part comes in and the whole feeling I get from it is amazing. Mapped Out is a close second, though, because everyone really locks in on that song – despite it being really hard to play!”

A staple of Meet Me @ The Altar’s live show is a medley that pays tribute to icons like Jimmy Eat World, New Found Glory and Limp Bizkit. It’s proved a winning move…

Edith: “The medley is one of my favourite things that we do because it really gets the crowd going, and gives people an idea of what we like and what we’re about. It was an idea that originally came from someone we know, because at that point we hadn’t actually played live yet and we were super-nervous about opening for Coheed & Cambria and The Used. Those guys are really talented musicians and I know their fans appreciate the more technical side of things. So we decided to put together this medley of Warped Tour-era songs to show that we grew up in this scene just like the audience and the bands that they love did, and it works perfectly. It was only supposed to be for that tour, but now it’s a fixture of our set.”

Meet Me @ The Altar gigs are a true coming together of people. The band reckon that’s all part of their job...

Edith: “I really enjoy people bringing their kids to our show. It’s really amazing how many parents bring their daughters out to our shows with them. It happens a lot, and it’s amazing to meet them and give them a shout-out onstage. A lot of the time it’s actually these girls’ first-ever show, and I think it’s super-important as a little girl for them to see an all-girl band at their first concert. Every time we get a DM on social media about it being someone’s daughter’s birthday at one of our shows we try and make it memorable for them, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job of it so far.”

Ada: “I remember one time there was a little girl who was turning eight years old, and we could see her from afar on her dad’s shoulders just loving it as we were wishing her a happy birthday.”

Téa: “Seeing the looks on their faces and seeing how much we mean to them is really cool. We have bands that have been that for us, so it feels right to be now doing that for other people.”

Catch Meet Me @ The Altar at Download Festival this summer. Get your tickets here.

This article was originally printed in December’s one-off live music special.

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