No Power, No Problem: Slow Joy Turns an Outage Into an Unforgettable Night

Thursday night was 95 degrees and the air was thick in Northern New Jersey. Crossroads in Garwood was filling up quickly in anticipation of Slow Joy. Slow Joy is the solo project of Dallas native Esteban Flores. His music blends grunge and emo with melodic lyrics and powerful guitars, so I was expecting some crowd surfing and a mosh pit or two. What we got instead was something so unexpected and beautiful that it served as a reminder of what music is all about—and gave us all a little hope for its future.