12/18/2015 REVIEW: Two Nights of Girlpool at the Middle East Allston Pudding

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Favorite Albums of 2015 [251] Favorite Albums of 2015 [5026] Top 30 EPs of 2015 Favorite Songs 2015 PREVIEW: The City & I @ OOTB

REVIEW: TWO NIGHTS OF GIRLPOOL AT THE MIDDLE EAST

Review by Jenny Usovicz

Photos by Christine Varriale

Girlpool

There were many familiar faces at the Girlpool shows October 5 and October 6 at the MiddleEast in Cambridge, both in the crowd and on stage, considering that opening acts IAN (10/5)and Gracie (10/6) are locals. I used to work with Gracie drummer Travis Hagan at Trader Joe’sand the bass player is none other than Sam Potrykus, cofounder of The Boston Hassle. Theidea of distinguishing differences between the two performances was confusing; for one thingGirlpool isn’t a jam band, they’re a punk twopiece, so the concept of commenting on the subtledifferences in songs is lost. To me there was no difference. The set lists both nights werecomprised of songs off their latest release, “Before The World Was Big”.

Jilian Medford of IAN kicked things off on the first night with her saccharine sweet vocals andlyrics about love, confusion, and being sad. It’s the sweetness of her voice paired with honestlyrics about relationship woes and uncertainty that makes her dreamy pop songwriting work.She sounds distinctly unBerklee despite it being her alma mater; rather, the California nativetranslates some Best Coastesque melodies.

Told Slant took the stage next. The quiet indie fourpiece is part of the Epoch Collective, whichalso includes members of fellow show openers Eskimeaux. It was like going to a FrankieCosmos and Porches show back in the good old days when Greta Kline was in both bands.Told Slant delivered emotionally charged lyrics over powerful drum beats, and lead singer FelixWalworth repeatedly thanked the audience for staying quiet enough for his hushed vocals toring out.

As Eskimeaux’s set began, singer (and Told Slant bandmate) Gabrielle Smith joked, “Round ofapplause for Told Slant, man I love those guys.” The set was really emotional; the fourpieceplayed most of the O.K. EP, their newest release comprised of songs about hurting and being

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12/18/2015 REVIEW: Two Nights of Girlpool at the Middle East Allston Pudding

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hurt, sadness, and nature.

When Girlpool began to set up I noticed they had coordinated outfits, intentionally orunintentionally, with Cleo Tucker in a black turtleneck and Harmony Tividad in a whiteturtleneck. The coordination reminded me of the chorus, “I just miss how it felt standing next toyou, wearing matching dresses” off their title track from their second EP, “Before The WorldWas Big”.

Now here is where I’m going to make note of the eversosubtle differences in performances.

The first night, October 5th, was handsdown the best. The Middle East Downstairs is farsuperior to The Middle East Upstairs; it’s a bummer, but it’s true. Downstairs can fit way morepeople. Eskimeaux was particularly stoked to be playing downstairs saying they had neverbefore played to so many people. Also, for some reason, the sound was really funky thefollowing night. Told Slant’s guitarist/keyboard player had issues with their amp, when theystarted to play there was considerable feedback which led to jokes about it being intentional and“so metal”. Told Slant also does this call and response thing with their song “Tsunami” with thechorus, “Isn’t this silly and aren’t you beautiful” being sung to the audience and then sung bythe audience. The second night they didn’t ask for the audience to sing along for whateverreason. Girlpool also faced some difficulty with a faulty guitar cable that disrupted their set.Apparently mercury was still in retrograde or something? I was also pretty bummed when afterthe first night a small group of audience members began to chant “Jane” referring to the songoff their selftitled EP, to which they ignored. Maybe they didn’t feel like screaming or playing oldmaterial, but there is something magical that happens when a band interacts with the audience,and they just weren’t down. It’s going to be hard to forget these shows and I’m certain no othershow this October is going to measure up to them no matter how offkilter the sound was 10/6.

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