Hop Along packed Brooklyn Steel with Saintseneca & Bat Fangs (pics, setlist)
Like they’ve done at many shows over the years, singer Frances Quinlan started the show alone on stage, this time playing “How You Got Your Limp” from the new album, and then the rest of Hop Along (including current live member Chrissy Tashjian of Thin Lips) joined her and they went into the new album’s opening track/lead single “How Simple.” From there, they continued to play all nine songs off the new album, mixed in with a few older faves, and the set never lulled. It’s always a treat to hear Get Disowned highlights like “Kids on the Boardwalk” and “Tibetan Pop Stars,” both of which had the band in fine form on Saturday, but the Bark Your Head Off, Dog-heavy setlist is such a better representation of how far Hop Along have come than a set focused on older songs would be.
Hop Along are supporting their great new album Bark Your Head Off, Dog on tour now, and after we caught their hometown show at Philly’s Union Transfer earlier this month (excerpt of our review quoted above), we caught them again in NYC at Brooklyn Steel last night (5/30). Unlike in Philly where Frances opened with a solo song, the NYC show opened with the new album’s single “How Simple” and Frances started the encore with a solo song, this time doing “Happy To See Me” from 2015’s Painted Shut. In Philly they played the entire new album, but this time they did just seven of its nine songs and added in a couple more from Painted Shut. Like the Philly show, this one was sold out, and as is usually the case at a Hop Along show, there was a definite contingent of big fans near the front jumping up and down the whole time.
Saintseneca and Ex Hex/Flesh Wounds offshoot Bat Fangs opened the show, and pictures of all three acts are in the gallery above. Hop Along’s setlist is below.
Hop Along’s tour continues through August, and then returns to NYC in September for day two of Pitchfork’s OctFest with The Flaming Lips, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Yo La Tengo, No Age, and more TBA (tickets). After that, they head to Europe with The Decemberists.
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Hop Along @ Brooklyn Steel – 5/30/18 Setlist (via)
How Simple
Kids on the Boardwalk
Horseshoe Crabs
The Fox in Motion
Somewhere a Judge
Powerful Man
I Saw My Twin
Look of Love
What the Writer Meant
Not Abel
Well-Dressed
Prior Things
Encore:
Happy to See Me
The Knock
Tibetan Pop Stars
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photos by Amanda Hatfield
