If You Go
ACTOR|OBSERVER
77 Daniel St., Portsmouth, NH 03801
All-Ages Show. $12 in advance ($15 at the door)
It takes about an hour to get to The Press Room from downtown Manchester on a Wednesday night.
Boston post-hardcore act Actor|Observer has a knack for providing an intense experience whenever and wherever they perform. While doing so, the band embraces the timeless interaction that occurs between a band and its audience with a simultaneous exchange of energy taking place. It’s one of the many reasons why they’re one of the top bands within the vibrant music scene that’s happening within “The Hub.” Folks within driving distance of Portsmouth have the opportunity to check this act out when they come to The Press Room on February 28 for a mid-week rager.
Local whippersnappers Girih and Sponge Head will be opening up the show with it all starting at 7 p.m.
I had a talk with vocalist Greg Marquis and guitarist Nick Grieco ahead of the festivities about 2023 being a big year for the band, their Portsmouth roots and connections, and plans to release some new music and play a bunch of shows in 2024.
Rob Duguay: Actor|Observer had a lot going on in 2023 with you guys being part of the Boston Calling Music Festival and performing a ton of shows around the Northeastern United States. Looking back, do you view the past year as a time where the band took some major steps in terms of playing bigger stages and increasing your presence around the region?
Greg Marquis: Yeah, I definitely think so. Boston Calling was easily the biggest show and form of exposure that we’ve ever had. Seeing our name with bands that literally influenced us and changed our lives like Foo Fighters, Paramore and Queens of The Stone Age, I’m still in awe when I look at the flyer and the lineup. I think that was really huge, it gave us a good boost in terms of people recognizing our name and the touring that we did, especially with He Is Legend at the end of the year, also helped us.
Nick Grieco: I think a lot of that did have to do with our 2022 release “Songs For The Newly Reclusive.” We put a lot of work into a record that we were very passionate about, it came out during the end of that year and it laid the groundwork for everything that we were doing for 2023.
RD: While being part of Boston Calling and being one of the local bands on the bill, what was the overall experience like for you guys with everything that was going on?
NG: They treated us like gold.
GM: Yeah, the people who run that festival are incredible. I didn’t have any expectations, really, but they really defied what I thought we were getting into in terms of how fun it would be, how well we were treated and how positive of an experience it was. We’ve had different experiences throughout our career, especially with festivals where we know that we’re still the little guy so we don’t expect much. We don’t expect to be treated with extra care or privileges, sometimes we feel like we’re just in the way and we have to be grateful to even be there while making sure that we don’t step on anybody’s toes. This really felt like they treated us like we were every other professional famous artist that was playing from taking care of us backstage to the artist access to the transportation and to the communication.
The way that the crew there treated us with getting on and off the stage really felt like everyone treated us like we deserved to be there, which was a really special and humbling feeling.
NG: I definitely have to second all of that.
RD: It’s awesome that they treated you guys that way. The term “actor-observer” comes from social psychology while referring to a tendency to attribute one’s own actions to external causes while attributing other people’s behaviors to internal causes. Does anyone in the band have any direct experience in the field of social psychology and that’s how the name for the band came about or did it happen in a more random way?
GM: I named the band back in 2010 when we were still figuring out what we were doing. That concept really resonated with me specifically because I’ve encountered so many people in my life on a personal level with family and friends among others who aren’t really self-reflective of their behavior and their actions. In fact, they’re more deflective while blaming external causes for things that are ultimately their fault. I think it’s sort of like a universal problem, that lack of self-reflection, that causes a lot of the conflicts we see in the world. There’s a lot of selfish behavior, a lot of entitled behavior and it’s really important to have a reminder to not be like that.
Always think twice about what’s happening and before you say “woe is me” and try to blame other people, try to think about how you’re impacting the situation and what your role is within it. I think too many people not reflecting on their role, acting really selfishly and horribly to those around them is a bigger issue than how it’s really perceived these days. Also, having a lack of empathy when others are going through s***, because there are things that are not our fault and I see a lot of people in various scenarios, whether it’s online or in their personal lives, blaming others for the negative situations and circumstances they’re in. Sometimes it’s not their fault, but it’s a way of displacing personal accountability. By naming our band this term, it’s us reflecting our core values and remembering to take accountability for our actions while being empathetic for the circumstances that other people are in.
The sort of double meaning that I’ve always liked is that our name consists of the two halves that makes us possible, the actor and the observer. You can’t have a band without both of those things and that idea of community and how we all interact with each other is also present because the audience is just as much of a part of the band and vice versa.
RD: It’s really cool that you had this vision for the band name. What are your thoughts on this upcoming show at The Press Room?
GM: I’m really stoked. Actor|Observer technically started in Portsmouth, I mentioned that we started in 2010 but we actually have two start dates. We officially began in 2010, but we really started getting serious in 2015. Really in 2010 was when I was living in Portsmouth with my cousin Alex, and we both started writing songs together on acoustic guitars and they eventually became the first demo of the band. Not long after that, I moved to Boston and I kind of started the band there, but we never got the chance to play together. For me, it’s really special to be headlining a show in Portsmouth because I’ve always loved that town and I’ve always wanted to go back there.
It’s also special because it’s been 14 years and Alex is now in a different band called Girih who are from New Hampshire and we’re psyched to have them on the bill with us for this upcoming show. For us to be going back to where we started all of this and seeing the trajectory of both our lives and each other’s bands in Portsmouth just feels really special, so that’s the excitement for me. I know Nick has a different connection to The Press Room.
NG: I’ve had the privilege of getting to play there regularly for the past year or so. The Press Room is an amazing venue, the staff is incredible and it’s always been a great experience. I’ve been able to play there with a band called White Belts, which is a cover band that has a residency there as part of Emo Night Portsmouth. It’s an absolutely amazing experience to go up there and have such an awesome and welcoming scene for that stuff, but this is the first show I’ll be playing at The Press Room with my original music, which I’m really excited about. Also, it’s on a Wednesday night so I’m really curious to see what the draw is like in an environment that’s already been really receptive to out-of-town musicians. I think it’s going to be a really fun show no matter what happens, but I think the venue itself and everything that has surrounded it for the past year for me is going to make it special.
RD: It sounds like it’s going to be a great time. After the show, what are Actor|Observer’s plans for the coming months? Can we expect a new album from you guys or do you just plan on doing some more touring and seeing where it goes from there?
GM: It’s kind of a mix of everything. We have a few new songs that we recently recorded with Kevin Billingsley, who did our last album, and we’re currently writing a new album as well. We’re definitely going to be releasing the songs we recorded at some point this year and there’s more to come with that. We’re also trying to tour as much as possible, we have a weekender in March with Loudsounds and Semaphore and we’re going to be headlining the upstairs room at the Palladium in Worcester, which should be exciting. We have some other stuff I can’t officially say yet, but we have a lot of irons in the fire.
We plan on having 2024 to be a big touring year, a big music release year and a big writing year. Then afterward, we’re going to see where it goes from there.
