Live Shows: Living Hour, Paper Lady, and Wedding Gift, Deep Cuts, Medford, MA 11/11/25

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Sometimes it takes a show to realize you missed a great album release. Tuesday, I went to see Living Hour and Paper Lady, and realized both bands recently put out great albums that I completely missed. Plus, I got to discover the brand new band Wedding Gift!

Wedding Gift opened the show, and if I heard Paper Lady correctly, it was only their third ever show. The brand new Boston band made their live debut three months ago, and they are showing incredible promise. They have a great sound that is equally as melodic as it is noisy and jarring. They played fuzzed out music with pounding drums, and it kinda sorta was dream pop, but a messier and louder version. Looking forward to hearing what they do next!

Living Hour (who we last covered way back in 2018) was up next, all the way from Winnipeg. They released Internal Drone Infinity, an excellent album that we missed back in October. They combine shoegaze with dream pop into a glorious, swirling noise, with tons of lovely crescendos, and kept the lovely and noisy musical theme of the evening going. Their louder, more poppy songs blended perfectly with their more quiet, laid back ones, and won over more than a few fans in Boston. Living Hour's guitar tones will definitely suck you in if you're a fan of 90's indie rock, and reminded me of Built to Spill's shorter, earlier songs.

Closing out the night was Paper Lady, who released Idle Fate back in May, which we somehow missed. The band recently relocated to New York, so it was great to have them back home for a Tuesday night. Their sound continues to blur the lines between indie pop and dream pop, and their set was filled with swirling guitars and Alli Raina's mesmerizing vocals. They alternated between pretty, poppy moments and crushing, noisy ones, which is their specialty. Paper Lady considers their sound to be "dream rock," and that could be the perfect description of it. Of course, no show at Deep Cuts is complete without a band member wandering into the audience during their performance, and Raina came out for the end of their closing song. It added perfectly to the intensity of the song, and closed out a great night of music.

On Repeat...

Minibeast - "High Sea"

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Somehow Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns has another band that I never knew about. Minibeast already released an album that I completely missed back in 2012, and they are currently at work on the follow up, Free Will. Based on a track from the upcoming album, "High Sea," Minibeast shares some common sonic ground with Mission of Burma, but with an added emphasis on the groovy side of things. It's basically the noise and dissonance of Burma but heard through a 60s surf groove, as if Frankie and Annette were punks. You can listen to "High Sea" below. Minibeast currently have a Kickstarter to help fund the final production of Free Will. You can get more information on that here . It should be out sometime in June.
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Midnight Peg - "Thirstland"

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Photo by Cecil Sykes Midnight Peg are an Edmonton, AB based band that are referred to as "madhouse punk." Their latest single, "Thirstland," is a just barely under control two minute burst of punk. You have guitar riffs that will make you think of At the Drive In, and somewhat spoken and yelled vocals which create a feeling of chaos throughout. This is a loud and angry track that is completely in your face. But, unlike most tracks this loud and punk based, "Thirstland" still keeps a sense of art in their music. Midnight Peg feel like a higher class of loud, angry punk rock. This one is great, with just enough of an emo undercurrent to make the song kind of melodic and almost palatable to a mainstream audience. You can listen to "Thirstland" below. Skinning is due out in October on Thousand Island Records. For more on Midnight Peg, check out the artist's website .
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The Beths - "Mother, Pray for Me"

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Photo by Annabel Kean For their latest single, New Zealand's The Beths have released "Mother, Pray for Me." This is a heartbreaking ballad consisting of Elizabeth Stokes' vocals and guitar with just the slightest hint of organ. It's a deeply personal song for Stokes, made obvious with how intimately the song comes across. It truly feels almost confessional, and it's quite simply beautiful. The Beths are most known for huge little indie rock gems perfect for bopping along to, but "Mother, Pray for Me" is quite the opposite. Stokes' vocals and lyrics are right up front on this one, and I can't imagine it any other way. Elizabeth Stokes says of her latest single: “I cried the whole time writing it. It's not really about my mother, it's about me — what I hope our relationship is, what I think it is, what it maybe actually is, and what I can or can't expect out of it.   “My mother is a first gen Indonesian immigrant, and very Catholic....
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