Smallpools – Lovetap! 10 year tour @ Paradise Rock Club

If you’ve never been to Paradise Rock Club, you’d think it’s practically a dead venue with shows you can walk to the barricade. You can throw a baseball to Planned Parenthood protesters on Friday nights. It’s practically on a college campus (go terriers). Like many things in New England, it’s kinda busted in a lot of ways and barely works? Easily the most busted aspects include but certainly are not limited to: the gigantic 10′ wide poles that litter the floor, an upstairs that isn’t open for most of the concerts, it’s rare they sell 200 tickets a night, air conditioning blasts the floor so you’re always freezing, a bathroom has 4 urinals so close it’s jarring, and also like 5 massive 10′ poles that block your view from almost every single spot on the floor. With all this said, I love that place.

Smallpools are an indie pop band that 100% benefited from the radio-friendly indie music of the early 2010s. Their early hit, Dreaming, is certified gold, was in Fifa ’14, went #1 on HypeMachine (lol), and was effectively the blueprint for the rest of their music. Their first EP, released via RCA Records (also lol) had 3 songs on it that I still prefer over almost their entire catalogue: Dreaming, Over & Over, and Mason Jar. Firefly, my favorite music festival, hosted them in 2014, 2016, and 2018. All this to say, they were 100% a band of the times. At this point, I think I’ve seen them more than any other individual act, much in thanks to seeing them 3x in one day at Firefly 2016.

The fun part of seeing a band like that is shutting up and dancing. It’s pop music for optimistic people aged 25 – 35 and luckily I fall in that range. The melodies are catchy, the lyrics don’t mean anything but will get stuck in your head, and thank god Lovetap! has like 6 really catchy pop tunes. It’s a 14 song, 45 minute long album that has close to 25 minutes of really fun & dance-y songs. Fantastic for a headlining set at a venue that advertises it fits 900 people, but never fits over 300 most nights. It’s an even better way to spend $23 on a Sunday night with your friends. Obvious highlights from the night were Street Fight, Killer Whales (which had an inflatable whale in the crowd), a Dreaming fakeout that became the bit of the night, and a 6 song encore featuring Million Bucks and Passenger Side. The lowlights were 100% the songs off the debut album that have been lost to time, which were great bathroom breaks and also songs I have never heard before in my life despite listening to (and owning) the album. That’s the big issue with 10-year album tours, especially in the streaming era, where people “oh my god love that album” but really only like the 4-5 bangers on it. There is some magic in hearing some songs that bands have left behind with newer music, but I’ll absolutely chalk that up to the $23 and nostalgia tokens we paid to get in the door.

The Chainsmokers should 100% be paying concert residuals to bands like Smallpools, as their remix of Dreaming helped propel them to being the headliners they are now. If you’re bored and want to hear the same song 4x, the Dreaming Remix EP features remixes by:

• The Chainsmokers (see above), who crushed it into a fantastic tune
• Magic Man, which turns it into a glossy nightclub bop. Magic Man also happens to be my favorite indie pop band from that era, who’s 2014 debut Before the Waves isn’t really worth your time, but their 2013 EP You Are Here is totally worth the 19 minute runtime. They obviously broke up after one album.
• Zookeper, who flips the song into an electro tune. Easily the most of-the-times remix here.
• Charli XCX & TWIN iDoL, both of whom just wanted crashing 808s on this

Rating: I’d go again but probably will never spend more than $25

Deafheaven @ Paradise Rock Club

If you’ve never been to Paradise Rock Club, you would think it’s the most in-demand venue in Boston. People wait in lines that go around blocks to get in, including wrapping around a Raisin’ Canes on the corner. It’s always sold out and crammed to the point 4 rows of people stand behind the balcony upstairs. The only reprieve on the floor is the salvation in front of or next to the gigantic poles that take up half the floor space. Crowds are always so over the top you leave dripping in sweat wishing for the sweet embrace of an oscillating fan. If you’re lucky to buy a ticket before it sells out, you’ll be treated to some of the best bands in the world in this venue of the past.

Deafheaven are one of the great American metal bands. Their 2013 album Sunbather cracked in at #68 on my top100 list, and their 2025 album Lonely People With Power would have been way higher. It is one of the greatest accomplishments this experiment of heavy metal has ever achieved. I would have paid close to any price to attend, but I was lucky to purchase my tickets in-person 2 days earlier for the bargain price of $31.

I do not know how to describe how this band performs. Deafheaven is 2 guitarists, a bassist, a vocalist, and a drummer. My iPhone camera longed to take a photo of the guitars staring at their feet adjusting their pedals every 5 minutes, but I couldn’t even find a 10 second reprieve to breath. Their set exploded out of the gate, with the first half hour being full of absolutely blistering blast beats and explosive riffs that would made even the most agnostic metal fan understand the joys of the genre. An extended Incidental I, Doberman, and Magnolia, a trio of new songs graced our ears for the first 10 minutes. I never wanted it to end. This was followed immediately by two classics of their catalogue, Brought to Water from their sophomore album and Sunbather off the aptly named Sunbather. Genuinely, if the show ended here I would have happily paid double. The rest of the setlist was almost entirely their new album, perfection.

There are immutable joys seeing a band like Deafheaven live. Crowds go absolutely INSANE whenever a coherent grueling riff arises. Everyone’s a diehard metal fan. For nerds like myself, it’s unbelievable hearing each discernible instrument get space to breathe in the room, rather than being forced into the claustrophobic space of .mp3s or vinyl. Hearing the rhythm guitars, bass, and solos in such clarity brings the album into such a new light. Each band member relentlessly performs, to the point where the guitarists are scrumming full chords for the entire show at blistering paces and the drums only find reprieve in melodic breakdowns. George Clarke, lead singer, simply blew my mind. I do not know how it is physically possible to sound like that. I do not know how it is physically possible to sound like that while actively dapping up crowd surfers. I do not know how it is possible to sound like that 85 minutes into a set. Recency bias, but this was one of the best shows I’ve ever attended.

Rating: see Deafheaven on this tour or regret it 

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Other Thoughts I Couldn’t Fit In

Emo and pop punk bands discovered many years ago that riffs are WAY more exciting in breakdowns instead of chugging, shout out to Balance & Composure. Deafheaven’s version of a breakdown is turning off the overwhelming noise for just a moment.

SZA should be in discussion among the greats. She has two near perfect albums!

Live music is really special. There’s really not as many things as fun as seeing your favorite band at the height of their power, an artist reach & achieve their potential, or belting songs from your youth with your favorite people. I’ve got two music festivals, 3 cool shows (Magdalena Bay, Arm’s Length, Bloc Party), and 3 blockbusters (Beyonce, Oasis, MCR) on deck for the rest of the year. It’ll be a combination of overwhelming nostalgia for me, as well as checking off bucketlist artists.

I’ll close with this: getting to & from Gillette Stadium is absolutely ridiculous. Every single person involved should go home at the end of the night absolutely shamed we allow this to happen. How is there only one train to the venue, and it only fits *1800* people of the 45,000ish capacity. I cannot, nor will I ever, recommend the venue. The sound bleed is the worst of any venue in Boston not named TD Garden, the parking lots take 2+ hours to get out of, and Patriot Place is really not an exciting area. Concerts, whether it be Bruce Springsteen or [insert artist], just are not worth the price of ticket + commute + overall experience. Football games probably are, and much can be said about how fun a morning tailgate can be in the dirt lots.