On Nov. 22, indie artist Jake Minch performed at The Drake in Amherst as part of his “More George on Tour,” named after his debut album George.

Minch, an indie artist born and raised in Connecticut, now living in New York, gained popularity with his single “handgun” and EP “how many.” Minch creates mostly emotional, softer songs that hit a listener in the heart.

The doors opened at about 7 p.m., and the crowd was seen sitting together on the floor before the show started. At the front of the venue, there was a merch table selling posters and T-shirts for Minch and opener Darryl Rahn. The atmosphere was buzzing with excitement, and concertgoers sang along softly to the pre-show music, including cuts from One Direction and “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers.

Rahn came on as the opener around 8:30 p.m. He opened with his song “Nothing Ever Happens,” moving on to “Angels Bowling,” which he said is about “waking up sad in a thunderstorm.” Rahn also played “Heaven’s a Dive Bar” and “Bright Side,” both folksy and mellow songs, which he said went out to the “five people who like dive bars” in the audience. The crowd was very mellow for Rahn’s set, soaking in his softer, solo acoustic sound. During his set, one audience member in the front said that they came from Boston to see the show, and it was their first time in Amherst. Before he went backstage, Rahn teased his upcoming EP, thanking Minch and the tour staff.

Minch came on around 9 p.m. and opened with “Nostalgia Act,” the first track on “George.” The crowd sang along softly to the gentler song, and soft strumming from the band added to the calm atmosphere in the room. He followed up with “moms new car” and “jesse,” which the audience sang along with passionately.

Minch was accompanied by a two-piece band, made up of Liam Creamer, also known as Ken Park, and Michael Basil Andrew. The pair switched from guitar to banjo to piano to drums, depending on the song. Their chemistry on stage was palpable.

“I really liked when they locked eyes with each other while they were playing it,” audience member and UMass student Connor Garry-Benko said. “I think they were really good.”

To follow up “jesse,” Minch played “Changed Things,” which he called a “sadder one,” joking that he only has a couple of upbeat ones. “Changed Things” is about Minch’s sister and their relationship growing up. The emotional contents of the song hit the audience hard, and there were audible sobs in the crowd.

Far from lightening the mood, Minch hit the audience with one more somber song, “drinking song,” before bringing on Darryl Rahn to bring the energy back up. They performed “F—-ed Up,” which Minch called a “song about being an asshole.” Concertgoer and Minch fan Ella Murray said that “F—-ed Up” was one of her favorite songs of the night.

The crowd sang along very passionately, and the mood in the crowd lit right back up. One audience member commend

ed Rahn, saying “Darryl, you ate.” Another audience member had a poster with the words “Who up Jaking their Minch rn.”

The mood only rose from there. The group then played “whose you are,” and the crowd screamed the lyrics. The climax of the show came at the performance of “Say uncle,” a song for which Minch asked the audience to put away their phones, since it is best enjoyed “when it feels like no one’s watching.” Being the most upbeat song of the night, the audience danced along and performed a crowd ritual, where they crouched to the floor during the quiet part of the song and popped back up to dance when the volume came back up. After the song, Minch told the audience “Amherst, I was unfamiliar with your game.”

What comes up, however, must come down, and Minch slowly started to bring back some softer songs by bringing on his tour photographer to sing “handgun,” his most viral song, with the rest of the group. Toward the end of the song, he transitioned into singing “Kyoto” by Phoebe Bridgers, a surprise that caught the audience off guard. Minch followed “Kyoto” with “Fingers and Clothes,” a much more emotional song, before Rahn left the stage.

Minch closed out the night with “For Leaving,” “Twice,” and “Leave,” a bonus track on “George.”

“My favorites were probably ‘Leave’ and ‘Twice’ and ‘For Leaving’ and the fact that they were all in a row was lethal,” audience member Cameron James said.

The three songs added an extra punch, being arguably the saddest songs of the night. Minch closed with “Leave,” playing the song solo onstage, leaving a solemn yet satisfying air in the room when he left the stage.

Chances are you may not have heard of Minch, but Lizzy McAlpine, Noah Kahan, and Paul Mescal have. The Wire sat down with Minch to learn a little bit more about his life, and how his music has grown into what it is today.

Born and raised in Connecticut, Minch grew up with his sister and single mom. He attributes his upbringing around so many women to be what inspired him to pursue music. Some of his biggest inspirations for his sound are what he calls “yearning songs,” like “Longsleeves” by Phoebe Bridgers and “all of Lizzy McAlpine’s early discography.”

“I had a lot of female friends growing up which kind of put me in, like, this weird ‘I’m the center of the universe kind of thought during my teenage years. I was like a guy who could sing and the only other guys who could sing didn’t do theater,” Minch said. “It felt like that path had never been explored by anyone I knew and so I sort of had fun feeling like I was paving the way where I grew up.”

In August, Minch started on his first headliner tour, performing his album “George” alongside Hana Bryanne. Being one of Minch’s “favorite songwriters ever,” he was able to connect with Bryanne and learn a lot during the first leg of “George on Tour.”

“Her and I had a Yin and Yang kind of thing, and I learned so much in that space. It was formative in a way that shook me when it was happening,” Minch said.

On this leg of the tour, Minch is traveling alongside Darryl Rahn, who Minch says he has a sort of “younger dog and an older dog” relationship. “Darryl is a little older than me, he’s more laid back, not that Hana wasn’t laid back, but he was totally down to hop in when we needed a guitarist for a couple of songs, and he’s more well versed.”

Minch has put out many singles and EPs, but “George” is his first full album. One single that gained the most popularity was “handgun,” released in 2023. One line in the song, “The worst part of growing up is learning how young you are,” came to Minch when he was working through some lyrics and remembered something he was thinking of in an Uber.

“I had an idea note and I was in the back of an Uber, over the summer after my senior year of high school, and I’d written, I guess it was either something my Uber had said or I thought up, but it was ‘the worst part of growing up is learning how young you are,’… that was the first time that I caught, what felt like, lightning in a bottle,” Minch said.

Minch’s favorite song on his first full length album is the 12th track, “Twice.” “Here’s the pendulum — this is knowing everything, this is knowing nothing, I think I did a lot of swinging back and forth really rapidly, and ‘Twice’ is just, like, exactly in the middle,” Minch said.

This is Minch’s first headliner tour, but he’s not a stranger to performances. He’s performed around the country and around the world, in places like Amsterdam and Canada. He’s even performed with Lizzy McAlpine, one of his biggest inspirations. He says that “More George on Tour,” however, has produced “some of the best nights of [his] life so far.”

On this leg of the tour, Minch found, was a lot more music centered than theatrics centered.

“Last tour was really ego-based, in a sense. The album had just come out, I had cosigns by pretty big heads, and I was feeling super awesome and all the rooms were sold out,” Minch said. “This time, we are stripping it back, and I am putting in the time to build a band that I want to spend time with long term.”