Live Shows: The Town and The City Festival Night 2, Lowell, MA 4/25/25

The second night of The Town and The City Festival was the traditional style for the festival with multiple bands playing venues all over downtown Lowell. For me, the night started out at Koto Asian Fusion, a relatively new music venue and a sister venue to Koto in Salem. The stage for the shows Friday night was in the main restaurant, which led to some awkward milling about before the music started.

Up first was The Shallows, a Boston band I was unfamiliar with. They play a blend of gorgeous shoegaze inspired alt-rock that was for the most part laid back, and was the perfect way to ease people into an evening of music. Their set inspired some slow dancing to break out periodically, and it's easy to see why. The Shallows play shoegaze, but a version of the genre that is pop leaning, at least in that late 90's alt-rock leaning into pop way. 

Lovina Falls played next. It was my third time seeing Valerie Forgione's baroque pop project live, and what strikes me is how different every time is. As the band continues to evolve, each live show is a completely different experience. Friday night's set was more of a rock focused affair. It was still rooted in the baroque pop we love from Lovina Falls, but with more of the alt-rock of Forgione's previous band Mistle Thrush. Along with the gorgeous harmonies and sound quite unlike the rest of the Boston music scene were crunchy and fuzzed out guitars. It made me even more excited to see them again down the road.

I missed out on the end of Lovina Falls' set since it was time to head back to Taffeta Music Hall for The Sheila Divine. I arrived just as Boston rock legends Heretix were finishing up (the hazards of a festival such as this one), and made my way to the front of the stage. When Aaron Perrino's band played The Sinclair back in January, they sported six members and four guitars. Friday night they were playing as a five piece with three guitars. As always, the classics like "Automatic Buffalo," "Hum," and "Like a Criminal" got the best reaction, but it was interesting to see newer songs such as "The Darkness" stand right up alongside the decades-old favorites. When a band has been around for almost three decades, new songs start to stick out as not as great as the old favorites, but that is simply not the case with The Sheila Divine. As someone who has been going out to see them regularly since 1999, this current incarnation of the band sounds better than they ever have.