Hop Along played afterHours at Northeastern University – 9/18

Philadelphia foursome Hop Along headlined Northeastern’s campus rock club/Starbucks with Free Cake For Every Creature and Maggie Rosenberg last week. 

Sure, Hop Along visited Boston just four months ago for a headlining slot at Royale, and will be back for a pre-New Year’s Paradise show in December, but they also released one of 2018’s best records. They ought to be welcomed back anytime.

April’s Bark Your Head Off, Dog is the band’s best effort yet, featuring bandleader Frances Quinlan’s sharpest lyrics and most ambitious songwriting. I’ve had it in constant rotation through the spring and summer, and am pleased to report that it’s finally converted me to a card-carrying member of the band’s cult. Pared back to a four-piece (multi-instrumentalist Chrissy Tashjian of Thin Lips joined the band for the spring dates), they sounded lovely from the afterHours stage – a much smaller one than they typically play these days.

Free Cake For Every Creature, who share a hometown with Hop Along, played a charming set of hushed indie-pop while Boston singer/songwriter Maggie Rosenberg offered songs that balanced candid humor and incisive burns while remaining stuck in my head a week later.

For a mildly amusing bit of trivia: Hop Along’s first Northeastern show was actually a much bigger WRBB Block Party with Lvl Up and Antarctigo Vespucci back in 2015. The band remembered, playfully scolding those of us who acknowledged attending both gigs for not having graduated yet. Some of us have, we just come back for the bands.

See photos of all three sets below.