Philadelphia rock pseudo-super group, Slaughter Beach, Dog, returned to Boston for the third time in 2023, this time sizing up to Roadrunner. The band released their fifth studio album, Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling in late September on the independent, Philly-based record label, Lame-O Records.
Initially started as a side project from his regular duties in Modern Baseball, frontman Jake Ewald has spent the better half of a decade building up the foundations for Slaughter Beach, Dog. The group has expanded beyond Ewald’s brain to include one of his bandmates from Modern Baseball, Ian Farmer, the drummer of Superheaven, Zack Robbins, the guitarist of Rozwell Kid, Adam Meisterhans, and keys player Logan Roth. With the lineup rounded out, the band has grown to be a much more collaborative effort, which was made apparent on their most recent releases.
The stage is illuminated by a soft blue light, with three windows hanging from the ceiling, as Ewald and his band sweep into “Bobcat Club,” one of more folkier songs from the new album. Ewald is accompanied by Erin Rae on vocals to produce beautiful, earnest harmonies in a similar style to Fleetwood Mac or Simon & Garfunkel. They carefully ease the crowd into their set, taking small steps to “Strange Weather,” the leading single off the new album, before they throw it back a bit to some of their earlier work.
Ewald takes a bit to acknowledge the crowd and appreciate the size of the room, which is nearly seven times the size of the Sinclair, where they sold out two nights earlier this year. Ewald looks back on that night fondly, asking if anyone in the crowd was present for their shows at the Sinclair, and dedicates “Pretty O.K.” to them, speeding up the pace of the set with a few songs from Birdie, their breakout sophomore album.
The group mixed up the setlist, covering a lot of ground from their quietly expansive discography, playing selections from four of their five albums, one of their EPs and even a “cover” of a Modern Baseball song that Ewald wrote and repurposed for Slaughter Beach, Dog. At one point, the band casually launches into “Engine,” from the new album, that takes listeners by surprise with its length; the studio version clocks in over eight minutes, and the live version ran well over ten minutes as the audience joins for the ride and enter a trance until it segues into the next beautiful track.
The “Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling” tour continues into the new year, closing out in late January where the band wraps up in Vancouver, BC.
LISTEN TO SLAUGHTER BEACH, DOG HERE!
CATCH SLAUGHTER BEACH, DOG ON TOUR HERE!
