Greg Mendez played Music Hall of Williamsburg

Just a month ago, Greg Mendez dropped his excellent new album Beauty Land and is now touring in support of it.

There's not a lot left to be said about the lone singer-songwriter who plays to a full room on an empty stage with just their acoustic guitar, yet there's so much that makes a Greg Mendez show so compelling. Seated in front of a microphone with a spare guitar and a mellotron to his left and right, Mendez played his brief, yet inspired songs that bridged the gap between indie-pop and emo like it was the early aughts all over again. Heartfelt lyrics that spanned the topics of addiction, rehab, falling in love, and finding yourself, there was plenty of material floating around the room to tugged at the emotions of those who filled out the venue and the above a whisper sing a long moments popped up more than I had initially expected. Taking the intimacy of these homespun bedroom-pop jams and bringing them to a large audience could easily kill the vibe and the songs could get lost in the space, but even in his reclusive nature, Mendez makes these songs fill the room without losing any of their tight-knit and personal responses. Even when crouched behind a microphone and slouched in a chair, Mendez drew in the crowd with his close-micd vocals that captured every lyric with high fidelity. The intricate finger plucking left the crowd dazed, locked-in and focused with hardly any other sound coming to interrupt his playing, only soft voices rising from the audience to join him as background vocalists. Often on Beauty Land, a song will take on the elements of a lost Beach Boys, delicate harmonies floating in the background, not fully achieved, but merely added to give the song some extra texture. On stage, a slight echo on his vocals brought this to light on several occasions, but the devoted crowd chimed in to do their part as well and you could tell that Mendez was moved by the response. Towards the end of his set, Greg invited his friend Allegra Krieger to join him for a few numbers and this, clearly, brought the duality of the vocals to life in the most meaningful way yet. "Concussion" was one of the most well received numbers of the night, the crowd coming in right behind him to give the song an extra push that really made it feel like the room was coming to life with raw emotion and a deep, shared sense of belonging. To sit alone onstage can be an extremely vulnerable thing to do, but Mendez remained in control throughout the set, his voice quaking at times, but that only made those moments more special as he bared it all and left it all for the crowd to witness.