It’s getting harder and harder to escape the brutal mid-July heat of Greater Boston, but for a few hundred of the area’s hippest music enthusiasts, relief was found Wednesday night (July 12) in the literal and figurative cool of waveform*’s show at The Sinclair. The Connecticut-based band, with support from they are gutting a body of water and Teethe, evoked images of slightly cooler locales while touring their latest album, Antarctica, which debuted via Run For Cover Records in May.
The air conditioning of the Cambridge venue welcomed a small group of über-cool teens and 20-somethings as the sun set on Harvard Square. Patrons trickled in slowly, not trying to seem too eager but clearly excited all the same. With the mezzanine closed, people could choose to either congregate by the stage, at the main bar, or near merch; for much of that hour between doors and show start, the main floor was sparsely populated.
As the lights went down and they are gutting a body of water wordlessly took to the stage to the sound of repeated air horn samples, the floor filled with bodies and a palpable excitement. The experimental noise band from Philadelphia featured just three musicians laser-focused on their performance, all facing one another throughout the set. By the second song, the first of many pits opened in the crowd. Cheering, hooting, and hollering followed. Clearly, folks loved the thrashing, contrasting sounds of the trio’s set, as ripping guitar wailed over pre-recorded vocal tracks and the repeated air horn motif.
After their first and final spoken address to the audience — a short but sweet “thanks y’all” as they left the stage — they are gutting a body of water slipped backstage. Following them was Texas’ Teethe, a more typical indie rock outfit that avoided the awkward, disinterested fate of many an opener thanks to the audience’s zeal for their performance. Three guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer piled onto the stage, trading vocal responsibilities across songs.
While not quite pit-opening in style, Teethe offered a sprawling performance of intricately layered rhythmic lines and introspective lyricism. The audience cheered and sang along; it was a perhaps needed rest in the middle of the show, even with their regular killer guitar breakdowns and intermittent solos.
As the crowd thinned out again between sets, the pedalboards being carried onto the stage established that we were crossing firmly into shoegaze territory with headliners waveform*. Antarctica, as well as previous releases like 2018’s library and 2019’s Shooting Star, could sonically clue listeners into this, of course, but seeing the intricate setup of pedal chains in-person is an entirely different experience.
The Connecticuters opened the show with a more mellow set of tracks, including Antarctica standout “Lonely.” The set was, expectedly, heavy on the new album, which worked because Antarctica, frankly, is an excellent body of work — each of the 10 songs stands on their own, but fit sonically and thematically together. Watching this play out on stage was a real treat, especially with album single “Firework,” which bounces between quieter, lyric-driven interludes and frenetic electric guitar moments. “In My Drink” offered a move towards a more extreme end of that loud energy, with a prominent but simple bass line driving the performance alongside a tambourine and a highlight guitar solo.
Much of the show was about this balancing act, wherein waveform* went between quiet bedroom-pop-inspired rock and bigger, grungier displays. While a lot of artists attempt this dynamic level back-and-forth, waveform* don’t seem to do it just for the sake of seeing if they could; their swells and decrescendos had a purpose that felt understood. By letting the music be the driving force of this (as opposed to, say, on-stage banter or lighting design), the set was dramatic and moving without being flashy or over-the-top.
At some point in the evening, there was an unspoken agreement made among the crowd that everyone would start headbanging in sync. It wasn’t a thrashing, hair metal headbang — just a step above the standard off-beat head bop, but seemingly perfectly in time with the music. People cared about the performance quietly, offering uninterrupted attention to the artists (and small decorative snowman, placed gently on an amp) onstage. As everyone got more comfortable with one another, waveform* even began bantering, a first for the evening. They jokingly led one song with opening riffs to Aerosmith’s “Dream On” and, of course, The Eagles’ “Hotel California” before launching back into the set. Their cool, calm demeanor was captivating, and before anyone knew it they announced their final song.
With a curt “we’ve got merch, everybody’s got merch these days,” waveform* headed out and the house lights came on, ushering Gen Z back into the slightly-less-oppressively-hot streets to continue their midweek evenings. It concluded a memorably intimate evening of tunes from one of New England’s most exciting young bands. While waveform* are embarking across the country for the next few weeks to round out this tour, they’re bound to be back in Boston soon enough with plenty of hometown-adjacent fans to quietly cheer them on.