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Archive for the ‘Mint Field’ Category

Mint Field (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, May 19, 2026)

Posted in Knotfall, Mexico, Mint Field, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Sherrie on May 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 19, 2026] Mint Field

I found out about Mint Field during the pandemic from their outstanding Levitation Sessions record.  They headlined at Silk City back in September and I was really surprised to see them back again so soon.

I couldn’t make their previous show but I was sure to grab a ticket to this one.

Mint Field is from Tijuana.  The band is Estrella Snachez (vocals and guitar) and Sebastian Neyra (bass). The laziest description of them is shoegaze, but they incorporate other elements as well–dream pop, ambient and occasionally loud feedback.  I’m not sure who their drummer was for this show, but she was really good.

They opened with the quiet Horizonte, a gentle guitar melody and soft bassline.  The funny thing about this song is that as soon as you start to really get into it, it’s over.  It’s just under 2 minutes long.   But it’s a great introduction to Estrella’s floating vocals and their overall vibe.  “Recuerdo de los dias” has a more pronounced bass line and a simple but bouncy drum beat.

El mar me veia was the first song that really showed off Estrella’s cool guitar techniques–she makes interesting sounds by sliding her pick up and down the strings–using various pedals and looping, it created a cool visual.

Delicadeza is one of many songs where Sebastian’s bassline is wonderful–he doesn’t simply follow the guitars, he plays high notes and lets the music really revolve around what he’s doing.

While most of the opening was dreamy and trippy, Sensibilidad showed that they can get loud with both guitar and bass building the intensity before pulling back into a very quiet middle section.  And Susiro sailed back off into the dreamy skies again.

Sueño Despierto (with a cool bass line) and Infinito are slow and dreamy (Infinito is a newer song) but Contingencia adds a real pace to the set. It’s fuzzy and rocking and a lot of fun.  As the set reached the end, they got a lot more noisy with Ve hacia la ventana bringing out some fuzzy guitars in between quiet parts.  But no one could expect the explosive ending!  Un flro sin interior starts like many of their songs–fairly mellow and dreamy.  But mid song, the full band kicks in loudly with a big riff that the band jammed for several minutes.  Estrella stood by her amp generating lots of feedback and looping it around while Sebastian and their drummer were going nuts–it was the loudest and craziest the drummer had been all night–like catharsis after being so chill.  (On record the song is 2 minutes total, but live, they stretched it out wonderfully).  It felt like a set-ending but of noise and chaos, but they brought it back in and finished the song with one more verse and that was that.

I was a little bummed that they didn’t play the songs that I really fell in love with like Jardin De La Paz and Sentimental Mundial, but there were two tracks from that session that they did play (Delicadeza and Contingencia) so that’s cool.  I was glad to finally see them, although now I kind of wish I had seen them play at Union Transfer during that shoegaze festival–to get fully surrounded by their songs.

I got the impression, or maybe they just said, that they wouldn’t be touring the U.S. for quite a while.  So I’m even more happy that I got to see them.

  • Horizonte ∇
  • Recuerdo de los días €
  • El mar me veía €
  • Delicadeza ∅
  • Sensibilidad dormida €
  • El Suspiro Cambia Todo ∇
  • Sueño Despierto ∇
  • Infinito §
  • Contingencia ∅
  • Aterrizar ∅
  • Ve hacia la ventana €
  • Una flor sin interior €

§ single (2025)
€  Aprender a Ser: Extended (2024)
∇ Aprender a Ser (2023)
∅ Sentimendto Mundial (2020)

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Knotfall (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, May 19, 2026) [MINT FIELD]

Posted in Knotfall, Mexico, Mint Field, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Sherrie on May 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 19, 2026] Knotfall

Knotfall is another band from Philly. I’m guessing that the band is the project of singer/guitarist (and for one song, drummer) Sami Rahman.  Because there have been different people on the different releases.

They totally threw me for a loop when I listened to them because I thought that they were basically a shoegaze band (since Mint Field is).  August in the Water starts their album and this set.  It has quiet guitars and soft vocals.  It’s quite lovely and I could see how they fit with Mint Field.  The song built to a louder sound, but still rather shoegazey (actually I found that his voice sounded a bit like Grandson and sometimes like Pavement).   But as the song reached the end, he started screaming in an intense, voice cracking sort of way.  And then the song dropped down to quieter moments again.  It was surprising on record but it was even better live.

Beyond Memory had an early Cure feel with lots of fuzz and I loved when the song broke and the two guitars played a really cool and clear riff–that blasted through the fuzz.  But the bigger surprise came at the end of the song when it shifted gears into a really heavy sound and really dark almost doom metal riff.  It was great and really intense–I would have happily let that riff continue for several more minutes, but it stopped after just a few runs through.

Sami told us that five of the six songs they were playing were from their recently released debut album.  Surprisingly they didn’t have any for sale and their shirts (which were really cool) were only Small-Large. (more…)

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Sherrie (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, May 19, 2026) [MINT FIELD]

Posted in Knotfall, Mexico, Mint Field, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Sherrie on May 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 19, 2026] Sherrie

I like going to PhiaMOCA, it’s so casual and it’s such a great space to meet and chat with a band.  For whatever reason, I was early for this show.  When I walked in (probably at 7:30) Sherrie was still doing a sound check.  It was pretty weird and slightly awkward.  But it was hot out and cool inside, so I did some NY Times puzzles and listened to the band get ready for the show.

Sherrie is a band from Philadelphia.  When I saw that they were opening for Mint Field, I went to their bandcamp site and saw that they had three songs out.  I hadn’t realized until writing this that each of these songs came out at a rate of one a year, and that none of the songs were released in the last five years.

I can’t find out much about the band.  The lead singer is Rae and there’s a guy who has been with Sherrie since the beginning, whose name is Drew.  Their Instagram page has a few things up before COVID and then nothing until 2024.  Ah, and then I see that their first gig was at Ortlieb’s in March 2024–they were a two piece.  Then they played Johnny Brenda’s in April of this year as a five piece.  For this show they were a four piece.

Sherrie describes their music as dream pop, but it feels more like bedroom pop to me–remarkably spare, although it is sweet.  There’s not a lot of movement from the band–except for the last song when the Rae walked over to the keyboard that someone else was playing and pushed a button to change the sound of the keys.  She stayed for a bit and then turned it off again. (more…)

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Mint Field / Halloween/ Sunday Evening Drive (Silk City, Philadelphia, PA, September 16, 2025) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Halloween, Mint Field, Philadelphia, PA, Silk City, Sunday Evening Drive on September 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 16, 2025] Mint Field / Halloween/ Sunday Evening Drive

Mint Field is a fantastic band from Mexico City:

Guided by Estrella del Sol and Sebastian Neyra. Mint Field explores the nostalgia and the melancholy of daily life with loud guitars and ethereal vocals that bring to life a unique way of doing shoegaze. Exploring and experimenting with different genres like ambient, dream pop and shoegaze sounds, Mint Field creates a mesmerizing experience to escape to.  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.

I have a live Levitation Session vinyl of theirs and it is fantastic.  I almost saw them open for someone last year but couldn’t make the show.  And tonight, we had tickets to Garbage.  Bummer.  I do hope they return as headliners.

I saw Halloween open for Hello Mary.  I really liked them and then

Halloween is a Philly based band and they play an interesting mix of sounds.  They are probably based around shoegaze, with fuzzy swirling guitars.  The vocals are quiet ( I often couldn’t hear them, but I could tell there was singing).  Guitarist Sia Dokos (who also sang lead sometimes) played really cool interesting chords and noises and I wished that I was on their side of the stage to really see what was going on).  I loved how things were fairly quiet and then they would just blast off like a classic 90s grunge/noise session.

Sunday Evening Drive is from Philly.  Their blurb on bandcamp says

Dance Punks bringing Disco to the basements

And yes, they are synthy and dancey, with a slight edge.  I’ll bet they are fun live.

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Public Memory / Mint Field (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, October 11, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Kung Fu Necktie, Mint Field, Philadelphia, PA, Public Memory on October 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 11, 2024] Public Memory / Mint Field

I found out about this show just a few days before it was supposed to happen.  It happened to be on the same night as Yard Act AND Charly Bliss, so no matter how much I want to see Mint Field (and I want to see them quite a lot), I wasn’t going to pick this show over those two.

Especially since I think Public Memory was opening.  I’ve never heard of Public Memory.  And Interlocuter says of the band

Public Memory is the latest project of musician Robert Toher. He was formerly a member of the band APSE, which had a distinct take on postpunk and post rock, and his subsequent project ERAAS rooted that moody propulsive rock sound into a more electronic-based realm. Public Memory continues in this dark and lovely musical direction.

Neither of those other bands is familiar to me, but from what I can gather Public Memory is primarily slow moody gothy synth.  I kind of like it.

But for me the real treat would be Mint Field.  Here’s just a few great blurbs about them: (more…)

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Slide Away Philadelphia: Nothing / Swirlies / Loveliescrushing / Tagabow / Mint Field / Knifeplay / Astrobrite / Glixen (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 9, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND–COVID]

Posted in Astrobrite, Glixen, Knifeplay, Loveliescrushing, Mint Field, Nothing, Philadelphia, PA, Slide Away, Swirlies, Tagabow, Union Transfer on March 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[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

3:00pm Doors Open
4:00pm Glixen
5:00pm Astrobrite
6:00pm Knifeplay
7:00pm Mint Field
8:00pm TAGABOW
9:00pm Lovesliescrushing
10:15pm Swirlies
11:30 Nothing
w/ DJ set by Full Body 2, Kip Berman and Vyva Melinkolya between bands

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. (more…)

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