“It’s like this every day in New York, clinic ” Nolan Eley observes, cialis gazing upon the post-Allston Christmas trash heaps surrounding Great Scott before the show. “We’ve seen some good moving today though, a lot of that ‘one person carrying mattress’ game going on.”
The questions of loyalty over a once-Boston band playing a “homecoming LP release show” with casual Allston Christmas jokes thrown in can run high for some scene purists (especially when said band chose to become dreaded Brooklynites), but Eley and the rest of Infinity Girl seem to resemble men without country rather than abandoners.
Formed in the fall of 2011, Infinity Girl quickly became Boston’s representative in the shoegaze revival with a strong debut LP (2012’s Stop Being On My Side) and an equally promising EP, Just Like Lovers, that winter. Following that, the band inexplicably went silent for three years.
“I left almost immediately after [Just Like Lovers] to Botswana for the next year,” drummer Sebastian Modak offered. “Mitch [Stewart, bassist] left to New York right after that, and then the next fall, Nolan and Kyle [Oppenheimer, guitarist] moved to New York too.” Although Infinity Girl appeared to have been left in suspended animation during their moves and travels (which meant no “Tswana polyrhythms or djembes” were considered, Modak joked), Harm, the resulting LP after reconvening in New York, is the kind of snarling advancement in sound any band on a three year break would only hope to produce.
Kicking off their set with Harm opener “Hesse” only solidified the notion that the multi-year gap wasn’t a concern for Infinity Girl’s homecoming set. Buzzsaw guitars squealed without abandon to give way to Eley’s ethereal moans, combining to form some of the most menacing shoegaze in recent years. Although the set remained away from favorites from Lovers and Side, the diverse nature of Harm was on full display, moving effortlessly through wide-eyed dream pop (“Dirty Sun”, “Not Man”), woozy slacker rock (“Hold”), and jittery blasts of fuzz (“Heavy”) And sure, they kept true to shoegaze conventions by keeping banter to a minimum and focus set squarely on their pedals, but when a titanic-sized anthem to anxieties in a new city like “Young” closes the night, talk or conventions cease to matter.
Aside from getting album co-signs from former Boston mainstays Topshelf Records and current Allston tape label Disposable America, the local support for the resurrected Infinity Girl was effervescent in fans and bands alike. While newcomers Gold Muse laid out some seriously jangly dream pop and humbly praised Infinity Girl for the opportunity (given that it was their first show ever), psychedelic night cappers The New Highway Hymnal reminisced how it was their first shared bill in ages with the now-Brooklynites. Fiddlehead laid out truly Bostonian feelings between their blasts of ‘90s hardcore reminiscing, adding a grinning taunt of “New York sucks” after singing their praises for Boston’s scene throughout the years. The smile was crucial though, fully aware that it didn’t matter if the band of the hour were making music out of Boston, New York, or Botswana. Infinity Girl, in short, belong anywhere they damn well please… let’s just hope the wait for their next offering won’t be as long.
For all photos from the show, view our gallery below. Harm is out now via Topshelf Records and Disposable America.
