The Brian Jonestown Massacre recently turned the 9:30 Club into a slow-motion cyclone, building long, looping grooves that rewarded patience and volume.
Nalinee Darmrong was there to capture the action in pictures!
ChatGPT produced this article to accompany original photographs by Nalinee Darmrong.
At 9:30 Club on Sept. 8, frontman Anton Newcombe took the stage without fanfare and set the tone early: eyes down, guitar up, the band locking into a mesmeric pulse that rarely let go over the next two hours. This was a night about texture and momentum more than banter — interlocking guitars, a thudding, unhurried rhythm section, tambourine splashes, and keys that hovered like heat haze over the mix.
From the opening number, The Brian Jonestown Massacre favored gradual ascents. Songs unfolded in wide arcs: a riff introduced in silhouette, drums shouldering in, bass finding the pocket, and then the full band swelling to a shimmering plateau. Newcombe’s vocal lines — half-incantation, half-melody — sat inside the guitars rather than on top of them, an aesthetic choice that made the music feel communal and trance-forward. When the band shifted gears, it did so with minimal gestures: a cymbal pattern tilting from shuffle to motorik, a fuzz pedal kicked on like a flare, a minor-to-major turn that felt like sunlight breaking through.
They opened with “Whoever You Are,” immediately immersing the audience in a haze of reverb-drenched guitar and pulsing bass. From there, they slipped into “Vacuum Boots” and “Do Rainbows Have Ends,” layering waves of sound that demanded full attention for the shifts in texture and dynamics.
Moments like “#1 Lucky Kitty” and “Fudge” in the early stretch showed their range — sarcastic, swaggering, but still tightly wound. With “Days, Weeks and Moths,” the band seemed to slow time, letting notes linger and harmonics shimmer in the air.
They reached toward something more weighty with “That Girl Suicide” then “Don’t Let Me Get in Your Way” — songs where Anton Newcombe’s vocals floated among the instruments rather than leading them. The set included fan-favorites like “When Jokers Attack” (a texture-rich rocker) and older staples “Sailor” and “Anemone,” short reboots of early, more ethereal work. Each change felt deliberate, guiding the crowd through tension, release, echo.
Watch The Brian Jonestown Massacre perform “Anemone” live at Glastonbury 2025 via YouTube:
The latter half of the show saw tracks like “Nevertheless,” “Pish,” and the provocatively titled “Whatever Hippie Bitch,” each one a palette cleanser of sorts –shifting gears but never abandoning the sonic cohesion. The closing stretch — “Servo,” “Wait a Minute (2:30 to Be Exact),” “Forgotten Graves,” and finally “Super-Sonic” — felt like a coming together, all threads pulled tight before letting go into catharsis.
Throughout the night, Newcombe’s leadership was subtle but firm: cues in tempo changes, mood shifts that crept in quietly, and crescendos that bloomed naturally. The sound at 9:30 Club held up: crisp where it needed to be, murky when they wanted mystery, loud but never muddy. By the time “Super-Sonic” faded, the audience was moving on instinct, carried along across nearly two dozen songs that built into something greater than the sum of parts.
Here are some photos of The Brian Jonestown Massacre performing live at 9:30 Club on Sept. 8, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Nalinee Darmrong.
But first some half dozen photos of opening act Flavor Crystals!
