Photos by Ava London
The original article incorrectly stated that the drummer for The Swirlies in Los Angeles was Kevin Shea, instead of Adam Pierce.
A distinctly familiar yet unexpected crackling permeated the hazy confines of Silverlake’s The Echo, amplified packing tape perhaps an allegory for the soon-to-play Swirlies’ experimentation with the modalities, forms, and capacities of sound. Assembling at Shoegaze’s veritable zenith in the 1990s, the Massachusetts-based group veers on the cusp of shoegaze and dreampop, with a still recognizably innovative sound. Today, the Swirlies tour intermittently, with their headlining set for And Always Forever Fest concluding a short run of shows predominantly along the West coast. Based on the formidable size and heterogeneous nature of the crowd, Swirlies’ legacy was manifested in fans who meandered to the stage in droves, intent on projecting their affinity for the band’s noisy, unconventional sound.
Swirlies, with a lineup consisting of Damon Tutunjian (vocals, guitar), Andy Bernick (bass), Deborah Warfield (vocals), Elliott Malvas (bass), and Kevin Shea (drums), opened their set with “Bell:” a clamorous track peppered with tempo shifts and Deborah-Damon harmonies. Seemingly in the interest of preserving continuity, “Bell” was succeeded by “Vigilant Always,” which follows “Bell” on Blonder Tongue Audio Baton (1993). Restrained and melodic at times, explosive at others, “Vigilant Always” maintained “Bell’s” tradition of jangly, fuzzed-out riffs peppered with spectral medleys from Warfield. As expected from a shoegaze crowd, there was little movement; head nods, shakes, and tremors were the primary manifestations of partiality. Swirlies did not seem to mind though, as their own set was overwhelmingly sedentary, with minimal perceivable chemistry between members colored by lights hued blue and green.
Preceded by the deliciously bass-heavy “Two Girls Kissing,” the cult classic, “Jeremy Parker” demarcated itself from the remainder of Swirlies’ setlist with complex guitar work producing a wall of noise oscillating between spasmodic and engulfing, intent on filling every orifice receptive to sound. “Le Noir,” released in 2003 as a part of Cats of the Wild, Vol.2, showcased Swirlies at their least conventional (relative to their own sound), exploring a brassy, subtly jazzy sound, paradoxical to the expected noisiness. Concluding their set with “San Cristóbal De Las Casas,” Swirlies reintroduced a plethora of beloved sonic elements: calamitous guitar, Tutunjian’s euphonious vocals, and a droning monotony facilitated by repetitive melodies. Interestingly, Swirlies abstained from playing “Pancake,” a quintessential shoegaze track which forefronts feminine vocals, currently residing as their top song on Spotify. As a fan of both the song and the band myself, I am just realizing I did not feel “Pancake’s” absence until putting pen to paper, perhaps a testimony to the band’s success in captivating a crowd with lesser-known tracks.
Swirlies were a perfect headliner to a festival uniting en vogue music fanatics participating in a relatively underground shoegaze resurgence with those fortunate enough to have witnessed Shoegaze’s birth. Despite a handful of technical problems, Swirlies’ set was successful as an homage to the intimacy of a scene just coming to fruition, with the inevitable kink or two only natural. Overall, the veritable sensorial experience that was Swirlies hallmarked an imaginativeness equally as novel as it was at the band’s inception in set peppered by unique samples from monologues to discodrant noise; the Echo, with its shadowy alcoves and was a vessel transporting the viewer from a known reality to that of Swirlies’ echo chamber.
