I Saw Racing Mount Pleasant

The Joy of a Band in Harmony

Last Wednesday, my wife and I saw Racing Mount Pleasant at Terminal West in Atlanta.

As I mentioned on the podcast last year, and again in my year-end list, their latest self-titled record was one of my favorite albums of 2025. Over the last year, we have come to love it deeply, so getting to hear these songs live was a real gift.

It was also a funny night because, at 40, we were clearly among the older people in the room. The crowd seemed mostly made up of people in their late teens and twenties. But what struck me immediately was how attentive they were. In the modern concert landscape, it’s rare to be in a room where not everyone has a phone out. At any given moment, a few screens would pop up, but for the most part, these listeners were absorbed in the performance. Color me thrilled!

That matters. And I think Racing Mount Pleasant’s music calls for that kind of attention.

The band sounded unbelievable. The drums, violins, horns, guitars, and vocals were all dialed in. These aren’t simple, straightforward songs. They move in unexpected directions. They swell, break apart, go quiet, erupt, and then settle again. There’s a lot of give and take inside the arrangements, and the band delivered all of it with true excellence.

What stood out was how carefully band members listened to one another. There were smiles at beautiful moments, glances across the stage, and the sense that they were not only reproducing songs from a record but inhabiting them together. The softer moments were allowed to be quiet. I’ve been to many shows where quieter passages are swallowed up by conversations in the back of the room, and that didn’t happen here.

Lead singer Sam DuBose was fierce and raucous in the songs, but subdued between them. He didn’t come across as a flashy frontman trying to own the room. He seemed to be there to serve the songs and serve the audience. That spirit marked the whole group: humble, joyful musicians who have poured themselves not only into the making of this music, but into its performance.

I could go on and on about how good the show was. Below, you can see a few (iPhone) photos I took from the night, along with a quick video from “Your New Place.” The video doesn’t capture the loudness of the room, but hopefully it gives you a sense of how focused the band was.

If you haven’t listened to Racing Mount Pleasant yet, start with the self-titled record and listen from front to back. Take it on a walk or a run. Give it a few listens if it doesn’t land immediately. There is a lot happening in these songs, and it rewards attention.

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