SURFER BLOOD AT THEKLA

October 2015

So I imagine you’ve probably heard of The Beach Boys before - you know, if you live within the radius of any normal human being with functioning ears - or maybe you have ears yourself - in any case, we didn’t go and see the Beach Boys perform, but we did see what is probably their best modern counterpart; urban surf-rock band, Surfer Blood.

Having recently hit the road in support of Foals album Holy Fire, the boys have taken to it again, this time headlining with their new album, 1000 Palms and with support from indie shoegaze band, Eternal Summers.

There we were, down in the swathing hull of the Thekla, watching as the soft spotlights immersed the stage in a deep, velvety hue; patiently waiting for the jangling of strings and clattering of drumsticks to subside as Eternal Summers finished setting up and began to exchange meaningful looks of anticipation in one another’s direction.

Then they were off - and it has been considered necessary at this point to mention that Eternal Summers were originally a duo; just singer/guitarist, Nicole Yun and drummer, Daniel Cundiff, before they stumbled across their bassist, Jonathan Woods, just as 2012 rolled in.

The three-piece band presented us with plenty of their tracks from new album; Gold and Stone. A name which I will now analyse to an unnecessary degree in order to convey the kind of sound you can expect: shimmering, gilded layering of auric, peaking vocals occasionally matched with growling punk, weave its way through the tracks. All the while jagged, murky rhythm and fuliginous guitar create that swarming milieu of radiant texturing.

But they’re actually less shoegaze than you’re currently imagining: with those chorusy guitar riffs, Eternal Summers become a mixture of old 90’s American shoegaze and late 90’s/early noughties American indie rock, particularly reminiscent of ‘Dreams Never Fade’ by New World Order, and even a little like Night Flowers. With vocal work and pedal work easily comparable to that of Lush and featuring bittersweet, inflamed vocals alike those of The Pains of being Pure at Heart; the band marries an indie, dream pop sound, with those whispering shoegaze tones ascending into roaring, blaring rock.

So, after a quick breath of fresh, sea air, we ran down the stairs as the sounds of strings once again began to resonant from the lower decks of the esteemed vessel: lo and behold, there they were. Rolling on stage in a nonchalant manner and emblazoned with androgynously patterned shirts and roguish, school-boy charm, Surfer Blood epitomised what would happen if The Beach Boys, The Smiths, Best Coast and Scouting for Girls all ran head first at one another and subsequently merged into one solid entity.

They began the set with a plethora of their oldest tracks, including ‘Floating Vibes’, which nods towards that moody, droning murmur that is Bombay Bicycle Club’s first album, but also with an erupting guitar riff in the bridge, and soft ‘ahhhhs’ that carry through the swarming guitar, and in doing so retain the band’s mellow, surfy edge.

Now don’t get the wrong end of the proverbial stick; we really enjoyed these guys, but it wasn’t until midway through their set, during their performance of ‘Take it Easy’ - a song which singer, John Paul Pitts described as ‘the stoner song’ - that we really started to enjoy them: Pitts leapt off the stage and began cavorting the crowd (‘What’s that you’re writing there?’ ...’Yeah sometimes I forget what I’m supposed to be doing too, so I have to write it down’) and at this point we really warmed to the band; they’re not just good musicians, and it’s not even that they’re also good performers, they’re generally just a lovely bunch of guys who also seemed incapable of going one song without dedicating it to their support.

Saving their big number right for the very penultimate moment, Surfer Blood performed ‘Swim’, a massive hit in both the States and the UK. They may not have had a sold-out show, but returning to Thekla after a 5 year hiatus, you were made very aware that everyone that was there had a very loyal following to the band.