Just as they started rounding out the last few days of their tour, Better Lovers suffered a massive setback when their drummer Clayton “Goose” Holyoak had to depart due to a very serious family emergency. Rather than disappoint the fans, they schemed to continue the tour without Goose. In his place? A sex doll with his face taped to it at the drum set. They decided to use his drum track recorded through the board at their last show with him on the bill for the remainder of the tour. Guitarist Jordan Buckley came out ahead of the set at the Granada on Friday night to fill the crowd in on the situation. “All we ask is that you pretend that isn’t a sex doll,” he said, to which a fan replied “Hey Goose, nice DICK!”

Despite the setback, Better Lovers gave it a thousand and one percent. It’s heartbreaking to continue a tour without a beloved member of the band, but Better Lovers gave their fans an equally fun show (granted, some of their tour stops included fire breathing and this one did not). The stage divers and crowd surfers were nonstop, and there was even a whole ass child stage diving several times towards the end of the set (fucking LEGEND, bro).

Although the crowd that formed on the floor to thrash was modestly-sized, they were no less genuine and were thrilled to see the members onstage. Better Lovers is comprised of vocalist Greg Puciato (formerly of Dillinger Escape Plan) and several members of Every Time I Die, who are NO strangers to Lawrence as they have made consistent stops here every year before disbanding. So if there’s one thing you could count on, it was fan loyalty, which could explain why the band was loyal right back at them by choosing to play with a sex doll rather than cancel the show.

They were joined by Gouge Away, Spy, and Cloakroom (our apologies to Spy and Cloakroom, whom we failed to get photos of due to a previous engagement).