Live Shows: They Are Gutting a Body of Water, Arts at the Armory, Somerville, MA 12/9/25
Photo by Brian Karlsson
I first discovered They Are Gutting a Body of Water earlier this year at Something in the Way, and was blown away by the Philadelphia band's unique blend of shoegaze. They also released the excellent album LOTTO back in October, which has been in heavy rotation here. I always prefer to see bands play their own shows, so when it was announced that TAGABOW were playing Arts at the Armory, I knew I had to check it out.
TAGABOW have one of the more unique stage set ups. Instead of setting up on the venue's high stage at the front of the room, they were on a small stage in the center of the floor, just inches off the ground. It created a much more intimate setting than a normal concert, with a good portion of the audience being mere feet, if not inches, from the performers.
Shoegaze can be a very repetitive genre, but not the way TAGABOW does it. Instead of the standard loud/quiet/loud format, they do more of a beautiful/heavy/interesting/weird breakdown. The members of the band form a circle on the stage for the entire show, and whipped the music into an absolute frenzy before bringing it back down again. They also employ a heavy use of samples in their music, often in between songs while they're tuning up. Interestingly, these interludes often morphed into songs, and if you were spacing out a bit (i.e.: me), you would come to in the middle of one of the more glorious moments of the night.
Based on their set at Something in the Way, I expected a much rowdier crowd, with plenty of stage diving. Because of this, I positioned myself up in the balcony of Arts at the Armory, which is quite rare for me. Tuesday night's show did not include a single stage diver, and only had a small pit/dance area over by the bathrooms. At one point, singer/guitarist Douglas Dulgarian requested the crowd move around the stage "like a hurricane." It took a bit, but eventually a decent portion of the crowd started running and/or jogging around the room to create the desired effect.
Apologies to opener Hooky for missing most of their set. While I am a fan of early start times, life got in the way and I didn't make it to Arts at the Armory until the very end of their set.
