Nothing capturing the crowd’s attention
The big blue beckoning beacon of the Sinclair had never looked so warm as it did Wednesday night. This wasn’t my “return” to live music since The Happening – I’ve been to two festivals and a Phoebe Bridgers gig – but the former were festivals and the latter was outdoors and not necessarily my typical live flavor. This felt like a proper return for me, the first indoors show since March 2020 and my first time back at Boston’s best venue since….I’m not sure. I didn’t even get into the vax card line before I heard a passerby say “Why is there a line? It says there’s nothing tonight.” Fittingly, this was also the first night of tour for both Nothing and Frankie Rose as they embark on a month-long US tour together. They were also joined by local group Anxious for this three-band bill.
“Hello Boston, we’re Anxious” said Anxious singer Grady Allen, which led to an obviously hilarious and original “me too” muttered under my breath to no one. Their performance was anything but, however, as the band commanded a strong stage presence for a young band also playing their first show since COVID. The Connecticut group filled the stage with light and bodies, while Allen got the still-entering crowd hype for the rest of the show. It was easily the most energetic set of the night, with the quickest songs and a genuine mosh pit early. Allen provided the only real singer banter as he engaged with the crowd and talked about the COVID downtime. The band’s eclectic mix of hardcore and pop-punk culminated in a pair of new songs and the announcement that they recently signed to Boston’s Run For Cover Records. They closed with a rousing version of “Seeds” that was dedicated to Boston band Pummel, lovingly citing that they were the first to give Anxious attention.
Frankie Rose get trippy
Frankie Rose’s performance in many aesthetic ways felt like the total opposite of Anxious. The band stayed geared toward the lip of the stage and stayed mostly shrouded in darkness, with all visual focus directed instead towards a projector screen behind them. Their set was accompanied by some glistening eye-candy animations that often looked like that of 80’s music videos. As the set wore on, the visuals became more and more colorful, starting in black and white shapes that looked like endless bureaucratic buildings and ending in a colorful array of formless psychedelia. It helped envelope me into the band’s sound (as well as help avoid what could’ve been a sonic decrescendo after Anxious). The 80’s inspiration in the music matched that of the video projection. Their set was full of metrical, new-wave inspired indie that was very easy to simply get lost in. It also presented an interesting opener to Nothing, who can be more on the challenging side sometimes. Much like Anxious, I admittedly went into Frankie Rose’s set blind, but I was won over almost immediately.
Nothing actually started their set about ten minutes before the announced time, which allowed them to do a couple minutes of quiet, mood-setting guitar noodling that nearly overshot dream-pop into ambient. It was an audacious start, considering the audience was tantrically waiting for an amp to burst. They transitioned into proper opener “Hymn to the Pillory” (the oldest song they played), but it was the second song “Say Less” that really got the crowd into their hands. The quick soundbite that opens the song played on repeat a couple times as a signal that things were about to get hectic. The transition between the two songs was natural, as if they were back-to-back on an album, and this was true for nearly all of Nothing’s set. The band used dreamy guitar licks, reverb and noise to link their songs together, sometimes with no real notice. I spent most of the set wondering if I should be surprised that they pulled these transitions off so well on their first show back, or not at all surprised given the downtime they had to practice.
Anxious filling the stage
The band pulled mostly from their aptly titled 2020 album The Great Dismal, playing five of the album’s ten tracks. They also played two of the three songs from their recently released Great Dismal B-Sides single, three songs that are much more lucid than the full album that shares the name. B-Side highlight “Amber Gambler” provided a mid-show palette cleanser as a bit of a lighter song before they transitioned fully into “The Carpenter’s Son,” a quiet and lengthy jam. Just as the audience was beginning to lose focus, Nothing ripped into “Famine Asylum” and brought everything racing back. “The Great Dismal” – taken from the B-Sides – was the closer and the only song preempted by a banter break as singer Domenic Palermo took a moment to thank everyone for their patience during COVID and morosely congratulate everyone for surviving. After a quick encore break, the band came out for a hurried and pounding performance of “Bernie Sanders” as the curfew beckoned. The band’s set was a robust and eclectic mix of styles, even as they pulled mostly from one album. The incorporation of shoegaze and post-hardcore elements has always made their music unique, and these influences really shined live as it diversified their sound song-to-song. Despite it being their first show back and likely their first time playing some of these songs to a live crowd, the band showed remarkable patience. They lingered on licks and dreamy moments, and never rushed too quickly into one song. The encore was the only time where it felt like the band was letting loose and enjoying the moment. It was a well-rehearsed and comforting set, something necessary on a night where both fans and bands were welcoming each other back.
“The Great Dismal B-Sides” is available everywhere now, as is their back catalog and releases by Frankie Rose and Anxious. Nothing can be seen on tour across America through December and Europe starting next March!