I Just Read About That…

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 9, 2024] Slide Away

When this day-long event was announced, I grabbed a ticket because I knew a couple of the bands.  Amazingly, perhaps, I didn’t know Nothing, the headliner.

I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to spend an entire day at Union Transfer, but the lineup was pretty great.  The recently sent the proposed schedule

And it sounds like most of the sets were going to be about 30 minutes, at least until Loveliescrushing.

But then my son came home from college for Spring Break and I REALLY didn’t want to spend most of the day away.   I mostlu wanted to see Knifeplay and Mint Field, but as I listened to more of the bands, I realized I quite liked them all.

Glixen is from Phoenix.  Now, pretty much all of these bands are shoegaze, so the descriptions are going to be quite similar, but here we go

Glixen is a shoegaze band from Phoenix, Arizona whose sound consists of tender melodies encased inside chrome walls of grungy textures and heavy guitars. Founder and lead vocalist, Aislinn Ritchie, began the project in 2020 enlisting guitarist Esteban Santana, drummer Keire Johnson, and bassist Sonia Garcia.

I really liked the Glixen vibe–lots of soft guitars and thick cottony sounds.  Aislinn Ritchie has a beautiful soaring voice that suits the music really well.

Astrobrite has been around since 1993 (!).  The band was kind of a solo project for Scott Cortez of Loveliescrushing, so I guess he’d be doing double duty.

The recordings feel a bit more claustrophobic with Cortez’ vocals mixed pretty deep.  The female backing vocals are a nice touch.  Although I prefer the sound of Glixen.  I wonder how differently this would come across live.

This is my third time NOT seeing Knifeplay.  They played a show in 2018 but i went to see Heron Oblivion instead.  Then last year they played Philly Music Fest and opened for Algernon Cadwallader, a show I had wanted to go to, but couldn’t make.  So here’s number three.

Obviously, they are from Philly.  Their sound is different from the other two in that there’s a little less of the cottony/woozy feel to the songs.  There’s a bit more individual guitar notes and the songs feel a little slower.

Mint Field is the one band I really wanted to see–the one band that I have recently purchased one of their records.  They are a trio from Tijuana, Mexico and  their live session for Levitation is stunning.  As the blurb for the album says

Tijuana trio MINT FIELD bring their ethereal soundscapes to the Centro Cultural Otomí, a monumental cultural complex in Temoaya, Mexico, and a fitting location to host their supernatural dream-pop and shoegaze tunes. Sprawling, cosmic rock with shimmering guitar and the heavenly vocals of Estrella Sánchez in an epic location – this is the most beautiful Levitation Sessions yet.

Markit An Eight has a video if their whole set

TAGABOW (They Are Gutting a Body of Water) is a Philly-based shoegaze band that I’ve never heard of.  They seem to be on the noisier side of shoegaze–heavier guitars, more wild distortion, extra noises.   Wikipedia says that genres besides shoegaze that have influenced the band include drum and bass, breakcore, jungle, and reggaeton, which could certainly explain some of the noisier components.

Thanks Markit Aneight

Loveliescrushing appears to be a duo of Scott Cortez (guitars, loops, treatments) and Melissa Arpin-Duimstra (vocals).  They also appear to not have released music in a decade.  They are the most ambient of the shoegaze bands so far.  Nearly everything is ethereal and floating away with Melissa’s angelic soaring voice and the washes of sounds that layer on each other.

Thanks Markit Aneight

Swirlies are a band that I didn’t realize was a band I knew.  I have their first album (they are a Boston band and I was living in Boston at the time).  I don’t really know why I got the record in the first place, although it’s kind of in my wheelhouse–noisy, not exactly shoegaze, very weird.  Not a chance of making it big.  And yet, they persisted.  Well, Damon Tutunjian persisted.  He’s the only person to have remained in the band from 1990 on.  And the sound is much different on their more recent recordings.  Seana Carmody was in the band in the early days and she went on to form Syrup USA who I had also forgotten about but have a fond memory of.

Thanks Markit Aneight:

Nothing is a band I also hadn’t heard of, which is just kind of weird.  Although the cover of their album Dance on the Blacktop looks familiar.  They’ve been around for almost fifteen years.  I have also just learned that they are from Philly as well, which probably explains all the hype for this show.  Everything I’ve listened to from them has been quite good.  They tend to veer into the more creepy side of shoegaze.

I would have enjoyed this event, but probably not for the entire night.

Turns out there was another all day event just like this is California a few weeks later.  Nothing headlined that as well, but I think I would have enjoyed our show more.