It’s been a rocky year-end for a lot of people. The weather in New York has been a bit weird and with mercury out of retrograde, we’re having a difficult time finding things to blame our hardships on. Each day can’t come faster, and a little raincloud seems to sit on the shoulders of every other person I see in this city.

Or at least, that’s the state I was in before coming into the New York City GOODfest. But when I headed into the BAM theater, the little glow of the lights and the energy of the room shifted my body chemistry. All of a sudden, I felt a little more *up* you know?

I was entranced by the opener, Madame Gandhi, whose spoken word and song committed the audience to a rallying cry of social change and activation. Her refrain: “The future is female, the future is female.” I couldn’t agree more. I played with the Google Pixel I was given for the evening, and as an iPhoneographer (I know, I know), I couldn’t get over how great the photos looked in low light, helping me capture Kiran’s face and energy with more distinction.

After a lull, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band emerged from the back, guerilla-style, and the blared through the crowd. Everyone held out their phones to capture it as they headed to the front of the stage, later joined by Shilpa Ray, a local blues punk band with a frontwoman that I can’t get out of my head. In an energized room, her silken voice and sardonic sense of humor captured the crowd and brought things down a notch.

When Glass Animals finally came on, most of the crowd (myself included) were a few glasses in. The theater was lubricated, and feeling positive, so when frontman Dave Bayley came out and let out his first little croons, we were all the way up there on his level. Something about the theater lights and the time and space we were at created a bit of a tingle in the room. Like I said, with everything going on right now, it was a sweet relief to feel some good.