Slow Pulp & Babehoven brighten up Brighton Music Hall – The Swellesley Report

So many concerts start with a small crowd for the opener, then get packed between sets in anticipation of the main attraction. But for the sold-out Babehoven and Slow Pulp twin bill at 500-person capacity Brighton Music Hall on Nov. 3, the room was nearly full from opener Babehoven’s first chords. These two female-led indie bands synced well, attracting a largely 20-something crowd happy to sing along on some songs, and quietly shoe gaze during others.

Slow Pulp’s buzz has been building since the Chicago band completed and released its “Moveys” album at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Its new “Yard” album, a 10-song, 30-minute eclectic mix of music on the ANTI- label ranging from poignant ballads to alt-country to glimmery rock, was written and produced using some of the same remote work processes that proved effective on the earlier album. The band is coming off opening shows for big-name alternative music bands Pixies and Death Cab for Cutie.

At Brighton Music Hall for its Friday night all-ages gig, Slow Pulp stuck with the general setlist it has used since kicking off its tour in Wisconsin, where the band has its roots. The 5-piece live band played all but two songs from “Yard,” a batch from “Moveys,” plus a few songs released as singles or via EP. Most of their songs have one- or two-word titles, like “Slugs,” “High,” and “Steel Birds.” They keep things simple, though their lyrics can be interpreted in many ways.

Despite having as many as four guitars going at once, Slow Pulp’s centerpiece during the concert was lead singer Emily Massey’s often hoarse voice, which soared and cracked at expected and unexpected times. It soothed on quiet numbers like “Fishes,” when the rest of the band backed down and the singer handled things herself on vocals and guitar, and on the wrenching “Yard,” with Massey backed only on keyboards as she sang of her family home being put up for sale. The singer ditched her guitar for “Broadview,” breaking out a harmonica partway through, eliciting a big crowd reaction.

The 70-minute concert began with summer love song “Slugs” and its chorus of “You’re a summer hit, I’m singing it,” which on this early November night raised the temps in an already warm room, ceiling fans barely moving above the close bodies below. After keeping it mellow with “Idaho,” Slow Pulp brought out bangers like “Doubt” and “At It Again,” with electric guitars all around.

Slow Pulp invited Maya Bon from Babehoven back onto the stage to combine with Massey in singing “Falling Apart,” which tells the story of an expert in falling to pieces who tries to put on a good face (“Why don’t you go back /To falling apart? /You were so good at that/You’re one in a million now”). Massey invited the audience to sing along “if you know the words to this one,” and they did. She did likewise on “High” near the end of the show, where she challenged the Boston crowd to outdo New York, where Slow Pulp was headed next.

The band “jammed” at the end of a few songs—as in, maybe adding 20 seconds of fuzzy guitar rock that rarely exceeded 3 minutes. My kinda jamming…move it along.

The biggest laughs of the night came during the intro of “Cramps,” during which Massey asked if anyone out there was having their period. Many fans whooped that they were, to which the singer said: “Boston’s synced up. You all must be hanging out a lot.”

As Babehoven was about to step on stage for its first “real” Boston show, a woman in the crowd assured me that this band “is going to blow up! Just like Real Estate did” (no, Wellesley, not our town’s $1.8M median sales price real estate. “Real Estate,” the band.).

She might be right, as lead singer Maya Bon’s voice is hypnotic, and even stronger live than on the recordings of the Hudson, NY band’s heartfelt songs. A group still in its early stages, having released its first full album (“Light Moving Time”) last year, Bon urged attendees to follow the band on Instagram and buy its merch to help fund its tour, for which she said the band members are “kissing their lucky stars every night.”

Babehoven’s been described as indie-folk, though seemed more indie than folk in person, with slow-burners like “Break the Ice” starting quietly with barely perceptible lyrics and then ramping up with energetic guitar from Ryan Albert, Bon’s main collaborator on stage and in production. Albert even ended the show with some faux guitar smashing—he might just have the real thing in him.

While song tempos sped up and slowed down throughout the set, Bon’s voice and acoustic guitar were steady presences sandwiched between her bandmates on guitar and a mainly light-touch bass. Bon hit high notes on standout numbers “I’m On Your Team” and “Fugazi,” with Albert windmilling his right arm on guitar for extra oomph on the latter. A drummer snuck in for part of the set, too. and Bon was joined on harmonies for a handful of songs.

The band got downright jangly at times, including on “Alt. Lena,” in which we learned the main character “loves chocolate milk and sex.” With vivid lyrics throughout their songs, we learned quite a bit about Babehoven, too across their 40-minute set.

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