The mid-week concert featured two excellent punk bands: headliners Cloud Nothings from Ohio and Speedy Ortiz from neighboring Pennsylvania. The Sinclair emitted its usual glossy atmosphere: great sight lines, pristine sound, and overall cleanliness. The 500 cap space also felt intimate, and on some nights (like this one) it’s as if there’s no fourth wall. You know it was a good show when both Cloud Nothings and Speedy Ortiz came to say “what’s up” to the audience at the merch table after the gig.
Speedy Ortiz “front demon” and former Cambridge denizen Sadie Dupuis, kicked the night off with “Buck Me Off” from 2018’s Twerp Verse. Speedy Ortiz has an uncanny ability to change tempos and introduce harmonic developments without losing the thread. It’s the kind of manic, zany, pop-punk that makes them such a head rush. The band owned the stage, their presence was constantly buoyant and engaging. The set ranged from 2012 debut EP Taylor Swift b/w Swim Fam to unreleased new songs “+1,” “Scabs,” and “Ghostwriter” — all of which riiiiiip. I’m very much looking forward to the recorded versions of those new tracks.
Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz (photo by Dan Moffat)
Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz (photo by Dan Moffat)
Audrey Whitesides of Speedy Ortiz (photo by Dan Moffat)
Headliners Cloud Nothings are currently touring behind the 10th anniversary of their Attack On Memory LP, which they played all the way through in sequence. The Clouders stormed the stage with a tsunami of sound. Where Speedy Ortiz operated on calculated songcraft courtesy of the MIT-alum Dupuis, Cloud Nothings dished out sprawling fuzz-rock. The second song was a nine-minute plus opus “Wasted Days,” which followed ominous opener “No Future/No Past.” The knob twisting, feedback-experimentalism found on “Wasted Days” foreshadowed some of the other noise freakouts found throughout the rest of the set.
Cloud Nothings current lineup features founding member Dylan Baldi, as well as longtime guitarist Chris Brown, bassist Noah Depew, and drummer Jayson Gerycz. Baldi and Brown’s performance style is more stand-and-deliver as opposed to blonde head banging bassist Noah Depew (who was repping the home state with a vintage local potato chip t-shirt) and expressive drummer Jayson Gerycz. A source tells me that Depew and Gerycz have a well-honed chemistry because they play together in many other bands besides Cloud Nothings back in Ohio. It is clear to me that they bring that electric connection to Cloud Nothings. Depew and Gerycz act as a sort of Greek chorus: The flailing duo hyped the audience with their movements in a this-is-how-you-should-repond type of model to the audience. Cloud Nothings expertly programmed their setlist by front-loading sludgier Sabbath-inspired numbers early on and then ramped up into faster pop-punk, which gave rise to a medium mosh pit by the end of their main set. They came back for a three song encore and closed with 2010 crowd favorite, “Can’t Stay Awake.”
Noah Depew (photo by Dan Moffat)
Dylan Baldi (Photo by Dan Moffat)
Cloud Nothings (Chris Brown, Noah Depew, Jayson Gerycz, Dylan Baldi)[Photo by Dan Moffat]
At the merch table I perused the wares. The musical hardcopies looked enticing but I just don’t have equipment to operate the material. Dejected, my eyes scanned the tables one last time until I surprisingly landed on… could it be? Hot sauce? Indeed. Speedy Ortiz have their own “dragon’s blood elixir” called “The Death of Speedy Hot Sauce.” I gladly forked over the $15 for this wonderment. When I got home, I unleashed the dragon’s blood on some late night pasta. Hang on tight folks cos this bottle is one fast flow. I mistakenly poured a very liberal amount of sauce on the Rigatoni. We’re talking Bernie Sanders level. But my regret quickly vanished upon tasting the sharp pungent heat that finished with a surprising bouquet of fruit. Amazing. Can you imagine an indie rock version of Hot Ones with different band’s sauces? Maybe an idea for the next Allston Pudding video series.
Speedy Ortiz’ hot sauce (Photo by Dan Moffat)