Grouper played afterHours at Northeastern University – 1/23

For Grouper’s first Boston show in a good long while, Liz Harris brought her haunting ambient folk to Northeastern’s hybrid Starbucks/performance venue, of all places. The night was rounded out with solo sets from Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner and Boston’s Bedbug. 

I saw a surprisingly huge range of bands play afterHours as a Northeastern student, but this Green Line Records show was definitely one of the more unexpected bookings. Even if the setting is less than ideal on paper, the show was wonderful in execution. Harris performed seated on the low stage, surrounded by a tangle of pedals, tape decks and a mixer, and the pin-drop silent audience followed suit. Her set was gorgeous and enveloping, blending some relatively traditional song structures with extended passages of tape loops and ambience. With Boston shows such a rarity from Grouper (her last was opening for Animal Collective in 2009, as far as I can ascertain), this felt like a moment to be cherished.

Zauner is fast on the rise with the shimmering, technicolor indie pop of Japanese Breakfast, which she typically presents as a full-band effort. Here, it was interesting to see the songs stripped down to just guitar or keys and vocals. They still sound pretty great that way.

Bedbug, the solo project of local musician Dylan Citron, offered pretty and intimate songs on acoustic guitar and toy keyboard with the sort of lyrics that bring a wistful smile to one’s face. If you’d like to check those out, their Bandcamp is amazingly located at linkedin.bandcamp.com.

Photos from all three sets, which I shot as quietly as humanly possible, are below.