Pile, Grass is Green, Speedy Ortiz played the Armory – 1/17

Close your eyes and it almost felt like 2015 as a trio of old friends united for a Somerville show last weekend with support from Mingko.

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As Speedy Ortiz leader Sadie Dupuis was quick to point out on stage, there’s a good chance this lineup had happened before. In the early-mid 2010s, Pile, Speedy and GiG were all denizens of the nascent Exploding in Sound label and mainstays of the Boston basement and DIY scene. They’d play each other’s release shows and often pop up on the same bills, helping define a broad strain of noisy, off-kilter East Coast rock music forever associated with the college and post-grad years of a certain type of Bostonian. I was a tad late to this party – in that these bands were largely playing venues that technically had stages by the time I was regularly seeing them – but I have many a fond memory of the era’s EiS roster taking over O’Brien’s and Great Scott a decade back.

We’re lucky enough to have still-locals Pile and the now-Philly-based Speedy playing Boston pretty regularly some years later, but the addition of the just-reunited Grass is Green made this particular Friday night bill feel pretty special. The Armory was packed and could hardly keep enough chilled Gansett on hand for what felt like a scene family reunion. I was running into people I hadn’t seen in months (or occasionally years) left and right, and the camaraderie these bands still share radiated throughout the whole affair.

You don’t need me to tell you that all three bands ripped – but they did – and relative newcomers Mingko felt right at home kicking things off with their own strain of alternately dreamy and nervy indie rock. Check out photos from all four sets below.