Indie rockers Smallpools drooped a new EP, Ghost Town Road (east), this month, and they embarked on The Night Shift Tour, coheadlining with Philadelphia pop-punks Grayscale, to showcase a few of its songs.
The higlights of the band’s recent performance at 9:30 Club, however, were their kinetic showmanship and a high-concept theme that likened the show to listening to late-night adult contemporary radio.
At 9:30 Club on April 11, Smallpools added three songs from their latest EP to the setlist, “Night Shift” (the first song and namesake of the tour), “Fake a Happy Face!,” (in the first third of the show), and “Swayze” (toward the end of the show).
Smallpools set the mood with “Nightshift,” a thoughtful lament inspired by being stuck in a dead-end job. But the song has an upbeat melody and a great beat by which frontman Sean Scanlon shook his body and sang a pleasant tone. It’s catchy refrain of “Will they ever end? (Ah, ah, ah)” also offered a singalong opportunity for a crowded and jubilant 9:30 Club.
Watch the official music video for “Night Shift” by Smallpools on YouTube:
Soon, Smallpools continued their lyrical somberness with “Fake a Happy Face!,” a song that again bemoaned the narrator’s lot in life — “Fake a happy face, fake a happy face and run” — but yet also inspired dancing with a psych-pop beat similar to the tunes of Foster the People and Passion Pit, two bands to which Smallpools often draw comparisons.
While the show to this point was high in energy and everyone was feeling pretty good, the concert’s conceit really took off soon afterward. Smallpools played a number of covers that invoked a sense of late night ’70s and ’80s radio in the listeners. At the show’s midpoint, the band performed “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac, enlisting openers Moody Joody to join them on the stage to sing the song. Immediately after, Smallpools played “Simulation” from their 2021 album Life in a Simulation. But they brilliantly segued into “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears after a verse or two of “Simulation.”
Smallpools later do the same trick again when they present their own “Swayze,” a song yearning for carefree romance, from the new album and then segue into “(I’ve Had the Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warner. Pretty clever stuff, and the audience really went mad for it.
Watch the official music video for “Swayze” by Smallpools on YouTube:
Although it didn’t quite sell out, the show must be considered a massive success on all fronts. Smallpools first hit our ears with their debut full-length album, Lovetap!, but they really have increased their output in these pandemic-era years, and they have hit the road more often, giving their sunny buoyant personas an opportunity to shine. Vocalist Sean and company seem set to kick it up a notch from here, and I’ll be eager to see what they do next!
Here are some photos of Smallpools performing at 9:30 Club on April 11, 2024. Photos by Mickey McCarter. (Keep scrolling for Grayscale!)
Smallpools brought a big show with them — a coheadlining act and two openers. Coheadliners Grayscale followed in the footsteps of Green Day with their pop-punk sound, and frontman Collin Walsh was ready to burst off stage to share his band’s sonic intensity. The crowd enjoyed Grayscale so much, I wondered if most of them were there for the Philadelphia indie rockers, but the audience and its good spirits remained in place for Smallpools to close the show.
Young adults continually crowdsurfed throughout the Grayscale set, and the crowdsurfing continued into Smallpools’ set, a bit to the surprise of Sean who remarked he never recalled crowdsurfing during a show before. Grayscale spotlighted two new songs in their setlist — unreleased “Let Go” in the middle of the set and “Not Afraid to Die,” a September single hinting at an upcoming album.
Watch the official music video for “Not Afraid to Die” by Grayscale on YouTube:
Here are some photos of Grayscale performing at 9:30 Club on April 11, 2024. Photos by Mickey McCarter.
