Karen Ponzio Photos
Perennial at Gather.
Four acts packed the room Thursday night at Gather, from coffee counter to chalkboard walls to bookshelves lined with everything from Eric Carle to Descartes. The lineup included Square Loop from Worcester, Mass., touring in support of their latest album, as well as local acts Perennial, Snowpiler, and Tj Redding.
Redding began the show with a four-song set that saw him dip into the catalogue of his band Mighty Tortuga as well as his own solo material. He mentioned having only one of his solo songs out right now, “Searching for the Right Thing,” but was hoping to get more songs out this summer. Redding’s earnest and energetic vocals and guitar work were a fitting start to a night in which each act dug deep and delivered their dynamic best.
Snowpiler turned it up for the next set. The trio jammed hard but also slowed it down when needed, taking the ever-growing crowd along with them no matter where the sound went. They performed new songs, including one they called their “newest newest,” that they had never played live before. For the last of their six songs, they asked the crowd to vote on which song to play: “Zoomed-In Person” or “Slump,” both from their 2022 release Superfloor. The crowd picked “Zoomed-In Person” and received it with rousing applause and appreciation for this hard-working band that was having a blast and appreciating them right back.
Square Loop took to the stage as the crowd seemed to reach maximum capacity. The band thanked everyone for “coming out on a Thursday night” and for “filling this small space.” Songs about a town in Maine called York and spending time alone during quarantine, among others, saw that small space vibrate with the energy of swaying bodies and bold cheers, with someone even shouting out “Worcester!” a couple of times as the band played through a solid set of indie rock that paid homage to finding your place in the world. They mentioned that they had put out a record in February called The Longest Distance Between Two Points, playing the title song from that record, which saw many in the audience clap along. When the set was over it was clear many didn’t want it to be.
The crowd thinned out a bit as Perennial was coming to the stage, but those who stayed were treated to a rager of a set from the aptly named band, which consistently creates a show that mesmerizes, energizes, and sets the stage ablaze. The band members blew everyone’s hair back with their opener, “The Skeleton Dance,” one minute and 18 seconds of frenetic fun that got many in the audience moving along with the dynamic bandmembers Chelsey Hahn, Chad Jewett, and Wil Mulhern.
Two songs in, the lights went down and a smoke machine and laser lights went on, changing the ambience of the room as the band stepped up its game even more. Jewett made his way into the crowd for two songs. He let others strum his guitar for him, and he even danced along with an audience member near the side of the stage at one point.
Hahn asked the crowd “are you ready to move? Are you ready to shake?” before the band played “Food For Hornets” and yes, at that point they were more than ready, but there were still more surprises to come. Jewett sang the first verse and chorus of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” a capella, with the crowd snapping their fingers along with him as an intro of sorts to “Perennial in a Haunted House,” another track from the band’s most recent release, 2022’s In the Midnight Hour. The title track from that album closed their set, and by the end the crowd was cheering and smiling and sweating and basically in love. Even as the room cleared out on to State Street under the glow of the full moon, it still seemed to be humming.