2013 was a big year for loud guitar bands, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that 2023 has been loaded with 10th anniversary tours of albums from that year. The latest one to swing through NYC was Deafheaven‘s Sunbather tour with Touché Amoré, which hit Knockdown Center in Queens last night (12/3).
Deafheaven were a force on stage when the hugely-acclaimed Sunbather was a new album, and last night, they seemed even more larger than life than ever. (And not just because George Clarke stood on a platform that made him look like a literal giant.) Sunbather is an expertly-sequenced, true art piece of an album, and Deafheaven really made the live show feel like that too. The light show was a purely mesmerizing, total sensory overload, and the band was playing their hearts out from the moment they took the stage and started tearing through the opening chords of “Dream House.” Members would leave the stage as they played the more interlude-type songs “Irresistible,” “Please Remember,” and “Windows,” the former two of which just had guitarists Kerry McCoy and Shiv Mehra up there and the last of which was entirely over the PA. The whole thing really ebbed and flowed and felt like a multi-act stage show in the best way. The band sounded tremendous and George has only become an even more iconic frontperson in the 10 years since Sunbather was released. It was impossible to keep your eyes off of him.
It was Deafheaven’s night, but they weren’t the only ones on the bill putting on a hell of a show. Direct support on this whole tour has been coming from Touché Amoré, who were Deathwish labelmates back in 2013 when Deafheaven released Sunbather and Touché released Is Survived By, and whose guitarist Nick Steinhardt designed the iconic Sunbather artwork. Touché kicked things off with “Just Exist” from Is Survived By, and went on to play a career-spanning set that never once let up. They’re a good match for Deafheaven; both bands make aggressive music that’s very, very pretty-sounding, and both bands have magnetic frontpeople backed by instrumentalists that create a truly towering backdrop. They ripped through 14 songs in what felt like a very fast 45 minutes (including one dedicated to Geoff Rickly), and Jeremy Bolm’s spirits were as high as ever as he led the loving crowd through multiple screamalongs.
Opening the show was Mary Jane Dunphe (previously of CC Dust, CCFX, Vexx, Pinocchio, and other bands), who recently released her debut solo album Stage of Love on Pop Wig Records. Mary started out her set playing a song with just guitar and vocals, but then put down the guitar, blasted beats over the PA, and just owned the stage. She was super charismatic, with a set that was like a combo of dance and performance art, with great songs to boot.
More pictures by Amanda Hatfield, setlists, and fan-shot videos below…
Pick up our exclusive yellow in beer/pink in transparent with black splatter vinyl variant of the remixed and remastered 10th anniversary edition of Sunbather in the BV store.
Deafheaven Setlist
Dream House
Irresistible
Sunbather
Please Remember
Vertigo
Windows
The Pecan Tree
Brought to the Water
Touché Amoré Setlist
Just Exist
New Halloween
Feign
Come Heroine
DNA
Amends
Is Survived By
Limelight
~
Pathfinder
Rapture
Reminders
Non Fiction
Flowers and You
