Rookie Mistake Live is Endearingly Rookie and Nothing Mistaken
10.9.2026 - New York City
On September 25, 2025 Indie band Rookie Mistake released their debut album Fields of Plenty (which you can read a review of here), and two weeks later, I joined them for their release show at Pianos and a quick pre-show interview to see for myself what they’re all about. The four piece band consists of Ethan and Justin on guitar and vocals, Gianna on bass and Nick on drums. Not a last name in sight because they’re just that personable. The four met within the music scene at SUNY Oneonta and formed at the end of their senior year as a Peach Pit cover band before swiftly moving towards creating original work. Four years later they have an EP and an album to their name, both of which are great homages to the indie and folksy sounds that continuously inspire them.
(Half of) Rookie Mistake live at Pianos in NYC 10/9/26 — Photograph by Ragan McKenna
Rookie Mistake is everything rookie and nothing mistaken, with their sound and performances being as humble and homegrown as it can get while also maintaining an impressive craft and quality to their product. Their creative process epitomizes what indie truly means, from pulling together guitar parts via iPhone voice memos, to recording vocals in blanket-covered makeshift apartment studios. The impressive quality of their production is a true testament to passion transcending access. Inspired by their own personal faves, you can hear them honor the guitar pangs of Peach Pit in songs like “Evelyn” and the nasaled droning vocals of the Backseat Lovers throughout “Where We’ve Been.”
Photograph by Ragan McKenna
So sure, they’re a sonic conglomerate of your indie faves, and that’s great information for those who can’t make it out to NYC for the live thing, but what’s in store for those NYC locals who can? Well, not only is their creative process humble and homegrown, but it seems that energy translates similarly to the stage for this four piece crew. As they themselves modestly describe their shows, “We’re up there and we’re really trying to make it work.” And they did.
Rookie Mistake approaches the stage with a humble attitude and personable twang. They move through their music with gratitude for the crowd, for each other, and for the music they’ve created together. You can tell they’re all actually friends and they view the crowd similarly, rather than placing themselves on some artist pedestal. Frankly that is a breath of fresh air in an ego-inducing scene. My only criticism of their stage presence, if this can even be considered so, is that I think they underestimate how good they are. They’re clearly an impressive and capable band technically, and yet they approached each song very self-effacingly, as though they were figuring it all out in real time with us. It was rather intimate and endearing, actually.
Photograph by Ragan McKenna
While I tend to have the blanket belief that all music is better live, and that did in fact hold up with Rookie Mistake, sometimes the experience of a live show is truly singular and incomparable, both experientially and sonically (shameless plug to Cab Ellis, which I review and revere here). Rookie Mistake live, however, is fairly on par with what’s streaming, which can be given its own sort of praise. Plainly put, you don’t have to worry about them sounding worse live, which unfortunately we all know is a popular conversation with big name artists who, despite their mainstream studio appeal, often cannot hold their own in concert. But this isn’t pop music; these aren't big label names. In the local and DIY/indie scenes, you have liberties to be messy—that’s part of the charm. You have the right, and actually I’d argue the requirement, to deviate from your studio work in an attempt to make your live shows unique experiences. Perhaps Rookie Mistake remained rather purist to the art they were performing due to the fact that it’s an album release—a crowd’s introduction to their work. I understand and respect that completely, but it made me eager to see them play again, next time with less expected rigidity in their set. Go balls to the wall with it next time. Make a 3 minute song a 7 minute song. Despite this, I still maintain that it was a good show. When you’re playing through a solid album, the music is bound to be nothing less.
Often, local music scenes can get swallowed whole by pretentious esotericism. I’ve been to many shows where I felt as though I was being left out of some inside joke between the band and their uninviting, personal friend group that loudly polluted the front row. Any decent local band should aim to create a community pooled around the music they perform, rather than treating newcomers as aftershock waves to an epicenter full of their own pre-established friend group, especially when performing anywhere other than a house party. While their friends surely were loud and present and dancing harder than anyone else in the crowd, I could tell there was an active attempt to make this show accessible for all crowdgoers, with a special effort put forth by frontman Justin. It made the whole locality of the night feel just a little more inclusive, and for that I commend them.
Rookie Mistake engaging the crowd in a Happy Birthday singalong for a crowdgoer — Photograph by Mike Herlihy
Between the solid sound of their art, their breath-of-fresh-air lack of ego, and the personal need to see them loosened up I hope to see Rookie Mistake live again soon, and I hope other NYC locals join me.