Slow Pulp

Review by Erica Tello // Photos by Jessica Focht

Slow Pulp, Chicago-based indie band played three nights in New York this November. The four-piece played at The Bowery Ballroom and a smaller, eclectic venue called Le Poisson Rouge, where I caught their set in Greenwich Village. The last time I saw the band perform was at SXSW in 2019 at a dive bar on The University of Texas’ campus. I interviewed the band for Honey Punch as part of the SXSW coverage at the In-N-Out next door. Since then, the band has come a long way playing many sold-out venues in the US, UK and EU this year.

The evening opened with “Slugs” from their latest album titled Yard. The crowd sang along “Cause you're a summer hit. I’m singing it.” The song is simply about falling in love on a summer day. The track encapsulates the feeling when you are excited to get to know someone new for the first time. The tenderness of the lyrics mixed with the swirls of synths and guitar creates a mellow, nostalgic arrangement. After “Slugs”, the band played “Idaho” and “At It Again,” from the 2020 album, Moveys. These songs carried a heavier disposition as the lead vocalist, Emily Massey, sings about doubt, moving on and “holding out for the downside” in “Idaho.” The crowd continued to be captivated, especially by songs that kept me afloat in 2020. 

The mood leaned lighter mid-set when the band played “Doubt.” When I hear this song, there’s a specific setting that I return to; it transports me to a time in my middle school friend’s convertible in the summertime while we drive to go get ice cream cones after school. The chorus especially captures the nostalgic, Sheryl-Crow-coded vibe of the 2000s, even while the song is about self-doubt. This juxtaposition expresses the landscape of doubtfulness in an upbeat way that’s impossible to not to sing along to.

The quartet continued to play a robust mix of their discography, including songs from their 2019 EP, Big Day. I recall first listening to the EP and noticing their downtempo, slacker-rock style with harmonious, relatable lyrics and an array of instrumentation. The set list was a culmination of new material from Yard and the older stuff; fans in the crowd recollected the songs that made us love the band’s sound in their beginnings. The song “Falling Apart” kept the crowd in a warm embrace, as the violin and soft vocals reverberated.  

The band returned to playing recent songs from Yard including a perfectly executed alt-country outlier called “Broadview”. The song is a particularly unique and noteworthy ballad with the pedal steel-like guitar and harmonica that gives the love song a indie country twang.  When Emily busted out the harmonica, fans wildly cheered, showing appreciation for the singer’s talent. It’s always refreshing to hear a band try something completely out of the ordinary, and it was well-received from the Le Poisson Rouge crowd.  The songs on the recent record are playful and fresh, as the band produced songs across the genre spectrum.  

Emily pulled the female crowd in unity asking “Who has had their period before?!” The guitar-heavy and screaming vocals of “I want everything” evokes an emotional and physical response to let yourself scream on bad days of period cramps. Nearing the end of the set, the band played “Fishes' ' which is the final track on Yard. This song is yearning and melancholic, yet filled with an authentic hope of discovering one’s self worth. The song “Yard” was one of the memorable and compelling parts of the set. As lead guitarist, Henry Stoehr, plays the repetition of the piano melody, Emily belts about losing her childhood home and her truthful self-realizations as an adult. The crowd roared demanding an encore, and the band closed with a trio of old favorites including “High,” “Montana,” and “At Home” spanning from their 2018-2020 discography. The band is becoming a force to be reckoned in the indie scene for their versatility, nostalgic and longing lyricism, and willingness to bend genres.

Keep up with Slow Pulp online @slowpulp