The young four-piece rock band from New York City, Quarters of Change, is quickly growing its devoted fanbase. Maybe it’s their ride-or-die city vibe, energetic sound, crazy guitar riffs, or even crazier stage presence. This was proven one March evening in West Hollywood, Los Angeles on their biggest North American headline tour yet. The famous 500-cap Roxy Theatre was the perfect room for the Quarters of Change boys to shine in, yet they needed bigger since the Roxy was sold out, like most of their shows on this tour. As I perceived the crowd before their set started, I found it to be an interesting mix; most noticeably to the front were some very young teenage girls who adorably gave me the “first concert vibe”. They were properly equipped with a pink cowboy hat that, spoiler alert, lead singer Ben Roter did end up wearing for a few songs until his need to jump and sweat overpowered the hat’s fluffy, pink constraints. I then spotted an age jump in a fraction of the crowd being much closer to the band’s age of early twenties, and finally, surprise, members of the band Bad Suns were spotted playing it cool in VIP (reader tip: Quarters of Change opened for them on Bad Suns’ previous headline tour just this past fall).
One of the reasons I love The Roxy Theatre is that they start and end all of their shows with a dramatic rising and lowering of thick curtains that hang above the stage; a beautiful, epic investment honestly. As always, the curtains eventually lifted to reveal the boys: Attila in the back middle manning their QOC-adorned drums, while on their left side of the stage, set up with microphone stands and guitars ready to be shredded, was Jasper, then Ben R., Ben A., and an extra guitarist, Mark, on their right side. In their strength in numbers on stage, each guitarist had their delegated sections of the crowd to win over and raise the energy levels in the room, which was very easy for them to do. As the boys opened their set with their high-energy song Jaded, throughout the night, each one of them entranced the whole room with their powerful guitar riffs and constant, smooth movement around each other on the small stage. They each seemed to be in their own rockstar trance themselves as they played; I don’t understand how else to describe their stage presence as graceful yet aggressive, calm but extremely energetic at the same time. Each boy shared looks with each other constantly from across the stage, or turning behind to lock eyes with Attila on drums. I’ve never seen band members so easily read each other’s minds like Quarters of Change can. There were constant magical little on-stage moments where they’d glance at each other and walk confidently towards each other to immediately guitar battle or just play face-to-face for a few (epic) beats. Not to mention, lead singer Ben R. wore mysterious shaded glasses throughout 80% of the set and it’s a miracle to me that they stayed on. He truly sang his heart out and jumped all around from the top of their setlist to the bottom, through songs highlighting their 2022 album Into The Rift such as T Love and Chloe, to older fan favorites such as Kiwi and I Only Love You. They closed their show with an encore of Ben singing alone (no glasses = it’s getting serious) on their comparatively slow ballad Sofia, and the boys returned to close out the night with the nonstop energy once again (“We’re Quarters of Change, bitch!”) with their song Rift. All in all, their freshly young rock-n-roll performance truly showed their confidence and comfort playing together as a band on the rise and was something very special to watch in such a small venue, since surely they’re going to play stadiums in the future and they know it!
