On the last night of their U.S. tour sponsored by Doc Martens, Drowners stopped by Great Scott for the second time this year. Though they didn’t actually hit the stage until a mere hour before the T stops running, most of the crowd remained, anxiously awaiting British model Matt Hitt’s cheekbones to appear.
Ravi Shavi was up first, rolling through a short but energetic set. Leaving nothing memorable in their wake, they established a noticeable presence, adding a sort of background noise to the bar area that was overcrowded with people stirring around, peeking at the merch table and whispering to each other because, “oh my god, is that him?” “Yes, I think it is!” “Matt Hitt is right there!”
Their songs were high energy, reminiscent of Foxy Shazam’s echoing, explosive pop. At least, that is, when the audience decided to pay attention to them.
The crowd was far too distracted by the boys that make up Drowners sipping pre-show drinks at the bar to take notice that a three piece punk band sulked onstage after Ravi Shavi sulked off. Boytoy traveled not so great of distance to join Drowners on their tour, hailing from Brooklyn. The group reminded me of Bikini Kill with the aggressive female vocals that veered away from any melodic quality at times and bordered on talk-singing. Bridging the gap between Ravi Shavi’s upbeat indie and Drowners’ more understated sound, they pulled the audience closer to the stage with their headbanging and wild windmilling arms.
The crowd remained surprisingly calm when Drowners finally appeared in front of us, around 11:05 PM. Bassist Erik Snyder eventually commented on it, calling us the “chillest crowd ever”. It actually detracted from the performance slightly, leaving me and a few other enthusiastic fans the only ones cheering and thrusting our fists in the air as they played through our favorite hardly-over-a-minute-long tracks off their only release. For a band with such a beloved frontman, you’d think the crowd would get a little more riled up when he was finally a few feet in front of them. Weird.
Boasting a lengthy collection of not so lengthy songs, they played through their entire album almost seamlessly, interjecting at one point to introduce, thankfully, some new material. Having spotted him at the bar earlier, it was apparent Hitt was slightly intoxicated, as after the conclusion of each track, he held the mic close to his face to recite a drawn out Presley-like, “Thank yooooou.”
They closed out their set unceremoniously, trotting off stage to take pictures with adoring fans soon before retreating to their bus to drink some more. A much less exciting show than when I’d seen them last January, it’s clear Drowners has a lot of work to do before embarking on such a large scale tour again.