The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die came to Boston on Sunday night primarily to experiment with fitting eight people on the Great Scott’s dive bar-sized stage, and secondarily to showcase the recently released and consistently great backlog album, Assorted Works.
Assorted Works is a compilation album, amassing past EPs, odds, ends & one-off tracks that may have escaped the scope of the casual fan. Though, let’s be honest, an all-or-nothing fanbase like theirs needs no reminder to listen to, say, 2011’s Deer Leap split.
Philadelphia’s Harmony Woods opened the show fresh off of the release of their excellent sophomore effort, Make Yourself at Home. Singer/songwriter Sofia Verbilla & her band brought an element of mock rock star machismo to the stage—the perfect foil for their thoughtful-while-on-the-brink-of-collapse pop punk. Verbilla’s voice has to be one of the most powerful and well-used instruments in the Philly DIY scene (apologies to (Sandy) Alex G’s pitch-shifting software), and nearly threatened to take down the grimy frame of the tiny rock club along with the supernova-ing relationships central to the plot of massive songs like “Renovations,” and “Best Laid Plans II.”
Imagine a world where an artist’s name serves to evoke the imagery of their sound. The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die (often shortened to TWIABP) would be the most deserving band I can think of worthy of a title like, I dunno, let’s say, Explosions in the Sky (note: remember to check if this name is already taken). TWIABP is now a decade into the honing and tweaking of a sound that conjures cold suburban winters, hazy stargazing, and spectral fear. Continuing confidently in this tradition, the band filled the Great Scott with their propulsive drumming, delirious guitars, and stories detailing vigilante justice and the dangers of jingoism; each a checkbox down a theoretical list titled “catalysts for devotional mosh pits.”
From the idyllic opening trot of “Walnut Street is Dead (Long Live Walnut Street)” (with its relevant name-dropping of “So thank you, New England trees” to remind you that this is technically a Connecticut band) to the closing mantras of “Getting Sodas” from 2013’s preeminent Whenever, If Ever; TWIABP melded together grandiose post rock, vindictive indie rock, and emotive hardcore seamlessly. The dread of “Marine Tigers” boiled over to stunning heights to remind us that “there’s nothing wrong with kindness.” The gratuitous use of brass instruments added body to the cacophony when the recipe for catharsis called for it. And the stage banter (ask them about the Pinocchio Paradox on Twitter) was refreshingly light. It can be easy to forget that a confrontational band that writes dramatic and emotionally heavy music can be comprised entirely of funny, very online individuals.
Sundays can be aimless affairs—no obligations to wake up for, no late night to be excited about—and it helps to have a goal to give meaning to the day. Thankfully, TWIABP is a mission-driven band. Coming to your town, hellbent on a more inclusive community, spreading the word from the utopian: “The world is a beautiful place, but we have to make it that way,” to the brave: “Make evil afraid of evil’s shadow.” Add in the dry bite of singer David Bello’s wisdom, the friendly-ghost coo of Katie Dvorak’s synthesizer, and punctuate it with the occasional scream for when you’re feeling—more and more often—like the bad guys always win, and you have a recipe for a band, let alone a room of adoring fans, that begins to feel like a community in and of itself—especially on a Sunday when you could really use one. There’s nothing wrong with kindness, indeed.
Listen to Assorted Works on Spotify, and get your hands on a long-winded short sleeve here.
And start repping Philly’s next big act, Harmony Woods, with a reaper bandana or t-shirt here.
