Last month, on October 7th, New York’s indie rockers The Backfires, Cry Baby, and Tennis Courts lit up LOFI Brewing with electric riffs and booming basslines. Each of the bands had ties to Charleston which made this an extra special homecoming show. Indie kids turned out in droves to hear their friends rock the local stage for the first time in what felt like forever. As far as Charleston is concerned, this show was as indie as it gets. In the words of Cry Baby, “we are so back.”
A huge thank you to Kushi Simmons (main: @ demonomania__ alt: @ charleton__punks_ mag: @ eyesore_magazine) for the awesome photography used in this article. It helps bring the scene to life and any music journalism wouldn’t be the same without it.
Tennis Courts opened with Yellow Lays, laying out MJ Lenderman-esque vocals over splintering electric guitars. Amidst beautiful breakdowns, Patrick Walsh played delicate melodies that’d make any fan of Wilco smile. In this video you can see Chase Heffron playing the McCarthy Fitch to the side.
Next up, Cry Baby took the stage. The hometown heroes turned boy band delivered a glorious performance, leaping in unison as they laid down ethereal, chorus soaked waves AKA their newest single, “Hollister.” All throughout the set Joey Haines inspired chaos in the crowd as he threw himself into the audience. Mosh pits broke out as Cry Baby covered the ever classic, “Song 2” by Blur.
After the show, Cry Baby reflected on whether or not that might have been the best Cry Baby show ever.
Finally, it was time for The Backfires to take the stage. They kicked off with “Going Gets Easy,” ripped through “Anything,” and broke into an unreleased track called “Brighter Lights.” Among the other unreleased tracks heard tonight were: “Never Seen You Before,” “Matador,” and “This is Not An Exit.”
The Backfires struck up gold from their roots with a cover of “When You Were Young” by The Killers. It didn’t take much convincing for LOFI Brewing to throw their hands up and shout the words to this 2000’s brit rock banger.
Of course, The Backfires played our favorite singles too: “Reflections On My TV,” “Song 55,” “Joyride,” and “Blindsided.”
Out of these, my favorite moment was “Joyride” (my personal favorite song from The Backfires) and so hearing this live was a special spectacle. The guitars are burnt, the bass is loaded, drums are banging.
Melodies fell like feathers in “Falling,” a cut from the band’s debut EP, Consider The Backfires. As the we heard these nostalgic tracks, Charleston danced and cheered, with plenty o’ love to bassist Matt Walter. It was pretty wonderful to see everyone enjoying the show so much.
One more highlight from the set for me was the moshpit that erupted during “Preoccupied,” another banger from the band’s debut EP. The Charleston crowd erupted from the center, sending folks flying left and right as The Backfires blasted ‘em with rowdy riffs.
The boys are back on tour again for November, joining Phoneboy- check out the dates below!
