If It's Too Loud...

I've been a huge fan of Glixen's ever since I first heard "foreversoon" back in 2024. Seeing them play with Glitterer shortly after solidified my fandom, and I've been trying to see the Arizona heavy shoegaze band every time they make it up here. Wednesday night they headlined The Sinclair with three other diverse shoegaze bands: Trauma Ray, Her New Knife, and Knifeplay. Philadelphia's Knifeplay opened up the show. I was completely unfamiliar with them until Wednesday night, and they quickly won me over. They played a set of loud/quiet/loud shoegaze that went from gorgeous to punishing. Their music was simply mesmerizing and sucked the crowd in almost instantly. Some songs were almost completely quiet and almost folklike, and others were fully heavy. They played three or four songs in their just under thirty minute set, and set the tone for the evening perfectly. Her New Knife played next. They're also from Philadelphia, and while considered a shoegaze ban...

Photo by Erasmo Viera One of the best parts of the current wave of shoegaze bands is the resurgence of heavy shoegaze. Based on their latest single, trauma ray are about to become one of our favorites of the subgenre. "Hannibal" is a monster of a song, and is shoegaze in the way that Deftones have been as of late. It's loud, but with a wave of warm fuzz that gently washes over you. A lot of similar artists make music to gently bop your head to, but trauma ray is full on headbanging music. Instead of being brutal, "Hannibal" is filled with gentle musical moments that truly make it stand out. It's pulverizing music, for sure, but it leaves a lot of room to notice its beauty. Vocalist Uriel Avila says of his band's latest single: “It’s a song about the feeling of doing your best as an individual yet still falling short in the eyes of those you hope to make proud. A lot of it stems from internal battles I faced growing up with my father, role models, and rel...