Glare w/ Cloakroom, Jivebomb, Destiny Bond, and Ritual at Bowery Ballroom, Brooklyn, NY

Shoegaze has been having a bit of a moment lately, to put it lightly. The surge of a new generation of music fans with access to the vast majority of recorded music right at their fingertips gave a somewhat forgotten alternative style a breath of new life. While the peaks of the first wave of shoegaze heavyweights like my bloody valentine may be long gone, they certainly aren’t forgotten, with newer bands stepping up to the plate left and right, each of them creating massive soundscapes that simultaneously slam and guide listeners through unique journeys. Newer bands such as the TikTok titans julie, the System of a Down opener Wisp, the 2025 Coachella undercard heroes Glixen, and countless others have been carrying the torch that gave the genre its initial popularity in the 90s and early 2000s. Celebrations of alternative music, especially in genres with subcultural roots, can be appreciated within recordings, but they truly display their full range of color in the live setting, which is why my anticipation for the Sunset Funeral tour was quite high.

Formed in 2017 in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, the root of Glare’s sound can be heard from their very first set of releases “Into Me” and “Blank.” Their sonic palette of hard hitting yet crystal clear drums alongside reverb soaked guitars and vocals developed further with one of their now defining tracks “Void in Blue,” alongside their first EP Heavenly and a split with genre-mates Leaving Time and All Under Heaven. During the time in between, the group started to craft their debut full length Sunset Funeral, released on April 4th of this year through Sunday Drive Records, which brings everything the band had been working toward with even tighter songwriting and more creative swings than anything in their discography thus far without losing the magic that touched so many fans in their early years. The group’s touring resume is quite illustrious, opening for high profile names such as Turnover, Superheaven, and Panchiko, as well as a placement on Deftones’ Dia De Los Deftones festival later this year. I caught them on their first headlining tour at the iconic Bowery Ballroom and found a great display of what makes shoegaze so captivating in the modern era. 

For their first headlining tour, Glare pulled from all sorts of pockets in their discography, opening with “Into Me” and “Blank,” almost symbolically paying homage to their beginnings as a band. From there, the band went into a handful of cuts from Heavenly intersected with the first single from Sunset Funeral, “Mourning Haze.” Throughout the show, the group was showered with haze, adding an extra dimension to the otherworldly guitar tones coming from guitarists Homero  Solis and Cesar Izaguirre. Most of the set was dedicated to cuts from Sunset Funeral, with highlights such as the nu-metal inspired “Nu Burn” coinciding with the beauty of “Chlorinehouse” and the mystical “2 Soon 2 Tell.” The final leg of the show consisted of “Void in Blue” and concluded with “Sungrave,” both achieving a lot of love from the fans in the audience. While Glare may have played it cool in terms of stage banter throughout the night, you could tell this show meant just as much to them as it did to the fans. 

This is a special time to be involved with the shoegaze scene, and it’s great to see bands as talented as Glare leading the forefront. You can check out their work here.

While Glare may have been leading the heavier aspects of shoegaze, the role of dreamiest band on the bill went to Cloakroom. Fresh off of their spectacular record Last Leg of the Human Table, Cloakroom have taken multiple laps throughout the USA, including a sideshow at Market Hotel for the revived Slide Away festival back in April. I caught their set almost a year ago when they opened for Better Lovers and was impressed at how well their soundscapes fit in within a world of heavier music, especially considering the lineup. This performance was no different, with each member of Cloakroom embellishing their ethereal tones just as much as those watching. Frontman Doyle Martin cracked multiple jokes throughout Cloakroom’s set in contrast with the serious nature of their music, including asking how many people in the crowd came by themselves and telling those three people they could be a trio in Fortnite. However, there was a seriousness in his jokes, saying there was a point in coming together as a community in times of crisis. Highlights in their set included Dissolution Wave cut “Doubts” as well as set closer “Story Of The Egg” which brought a hypnotic angle into the group’s trademark beauty.

Cloakroom is a tried and true definition of dreamier atmospherics within the shoegaze genre, and their live performance brings even more transcendence to the table. You can check out their latest record Last Leg Of The Human Table here. 

In recent years, shoegaze bands have found themselves mixed in with the hardcore crowd, almost like the opposites in the lush soundscapes and heavy hitting riffs ended up attracting to each other, hence why the inclusion of hardcore band Jivebomb on the lineup felt very attuned to the current alternative music landscape. The group tore through their tracks with a ferocity you would find at your local VFW instead of the Bowery Ballroom, turning up the dials on the overdriven guitars to 11 and pushing their Orange amps to the max. Vocalist Kat Madeira's gutterals were relentless throughout the group’s 25-minute runtime, only dropping the harshness to thank the bands and to tell the crowd to move their bodies “in a weird way.” The group went through most of the tracks from their newest record ETHEREAL and still had enough time to rock out most of their discography, ranging from their debut demo to cuts on Primitive Desires.

Jivebomb is unrelenting, passionate, and most of all, a great band to catch live. You can listen to their latest 15-minute record ETHEREAL here.

Kicking off the hardcore festivities for the night was Denver-based quintet Destiny Bond. The group set the record straight for the level of energy necessary for a hardcore band on stage, with vocalist Cloe Madonna utilizing every inch as a playground for her to move and jump. The group focused on tracks from their upcoming record OUR LOVE, showcasing the underlying messages of love and community throughout these brutal songs. Madonna furthered the sentiment surrounding hardcore by commenting on how grateful she was for the folks who came to dance and take their aggression out in the dancing instead of in the outside world. For some folks in this show, this may have been the first time they witnessed a live expression of the punk genre instead of a video or a recording. The alternative music scene can only survive with the purest and most unapologetic expressions of these genres, and Destiny Bond wears all of that on their sleeve.

Destiny Bond’s newest record, OUR LOVE, will be released on October 17th, 2025. You can check out the rest of their music here.

The New York date of the Sunset Funeral tour served as a showcase for Sunday Drive Records, the label responsible for the output of Glare, Jivebomb, Destiny Bond, and Ritual, the first opener of the night. The group pulled out all the stops for their first show in New York, constantly jumped around and waving their guitars at any chance they could. The group may be relatively new, but they certainly know how to work a crowd, no matter how big or small they may be. Their combination of heavier guitar tones cultivated a great mix between the hardcore-centric acts to follow and the more luscious gaze acts towards the end of the night. 

Ritual showcased the best of both worlds on the Sunset Funeral tour, and I’m eager to see what they are working towards in the future. You can check out their work here.