From Indian Lakes played their first show in New York in five years on Friday night (6/14) to a packed crowd at Baby’s All Right in support of their fantastic new record Head Void. And rather than plying the audience of longtime fans with a blended set of those songs and the hits, they opted to play the entire record front to back before switching gears for a career-spanning setlist that ended with two songs played solo by band leader Joe Vann.
Head Void is something of a comeback for the band, who consistently put out five records between 2009 and 2019, before retreating for the last several years. While the self-imposed hiatus was obviously impacted by the pandemic, Vann also used this period to independently write, record, and release a series of more stripped back solo records under the name Joe Vann. And while Head Void may not be a strict return to form of their more aggressive post-rock and post-hardcore roots, it does revive their patented wall-of-sound performances, leaning deeper into their shoegaze roots.
While songs like “The Flow” and “I Lay Different” may not hit quite as immediately hard as early singles like “Breaking My Bones” (which did get a coveted spot in their post-HV set), they still have the dreamy dynamics, groovy rhythm section, and interlocking leads that have defined their sound from the very beginning. Working through their twenty songs, you could feel that this group was as locked in as ever, and seemed truly stoked to be sharing the stage together again.
The crowd was transfixed through it all, especially the glitchy, ’90s-vibed projections of traffic and nature that overlaid the four piece, even if they did come a hair more alive for the band’s early career singles. And you could tell that Vann was humbled by the response: noting at one point (after joking about preferring not to be personally perceived), that since taking the band back to their DIY roots for Dimly Lit (2019) and Head Void, they had no idea whether or not anyone would show up.
Supporting From Indian Lakes was New York native Joe Taylor Sutkowski playing under the moniker Dirt Buyer, who played the kind of effortless-seeming shoegaze that paired perfectly for the early evening Friday Matinee.
Setlist
Water
Holy
The Flow
The Lines
The Wilderness
Hold Me Down
I Lay Different
Spilling Over
Shrine
Keep Me
Breaking My Bones
Label This Love
No One Else
Dissonance
Blank Tapes
Sleeping Limbs
We Never Dream
Paintings
ULS
Sunlight
From Indian Lakes — 2024 Tour Dates
JUNE
18 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
19 – Minneapolis, MN @ Tuf Club
21 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
22 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
24 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
25 – Portland, OR @ Holocene
27 – San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar
OCTOBER
11 – Las Vegas, NV @ Best Friends Forever Festival