Concert Review: The Beths w/ Illuminati Hotties, Phoebe Rings, Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, NY

In the summer of 2022, I worked as a production intern for BRIC Celebrate! Brooklyn, a multi-week community music festival in Prospect Park. The days were long and hard, but the joy that came from pulling off successful and memorable nights of music was worth it every time. One of my favorite shows came towards the end of the season where this up-and-coming group from New Zealand played to a massive crowd of excited indie rock fans. Every member of the band displayed an exuberance that made the hours of manual labor fly by, and they were incredibly thankful for everyone on our team when they packed up after the show. That band was called The Beths, and they left one of the strongest first impressions of a band from that summer due to their joyous nature and brilliant songwriting.

Watching The Beths’ growth over the last few years has been an absolute delight. Riding off of the success of their fourth album Straight Line Was a Lie, The Beths made a stop at a very sold-out Brooklyn Paramount. The group went on to a crowd of cheers before breaking out the title track of the new album to loads of voices singing along with them. Right after a round of rapturous applause, the group went into the track “No Joy,” utilizing smoke cannons to launch blue recorders into the air for guitarist Jonathan Pierce and bassist Benjamin Sinclair to use.

One quality that kept the show engaging from beginning to end was the frequent tonal shifts throughout their setlist. Singer Elizabeth Stokes carried audiences through the poppier cuts in their discography including “Metal” before slowing down the moment with the powerful “Til the World Stops” and the tear-jerker of “Mother, Pray for Me.” While the setlist mainly revolved around cuts from Straight Line, the group broke out a bunch of fan favorites from their discography, including the title tracks from each of their prior three records, “Future Me Hates Me,” “Jump Rope Gazers,” and “Expert In A Dying Field,” as well as a personal highlight from Expert, “When You Know, You Know.” The group even broke out a cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” just in time for the holiday season.

If there’s one thing that’s remained constant throughout the years of The Beths’ run, it’s their sense of humor throughout the show. Stokes wanted to find out what everyone thought New York’s rival city was, which got hundreds of people shouting cities in the northeast including Newark and Boston. Drummer Tristan Deck asked if the fountains near the ceiling of the Brooklyn Paramount actually worked, prompting a chant from the crowd for the venue to turn them on. While tour can be quite exhausting, The Beths know how to have a little bit of fun even in the spotlight.

The Beths are just as charming as they have ever been, and the sizes of these venues on the Straight Line Was a Lie tour prove how love can be a positive source. You can check out their latest record here.

Acting as a special guest for the New York date of the Straight Line Was A Lie tour was the L.A. based punk outfit Illuminati Hotties, spearheaded by frontwoman Sarah Tudzin. The group have been touring heavily off of their latest record POWER, breaking out tracks like lead single “Can’t Be Still,” “Power,” and “The L” which took on a whole new meaning in New York City due to the L train. Tudzin never had less than 100% energy with her performance, constantly bouncing around the stage and smiling whenever she had a guitar in her hands. Tudzin even gave a massive shoutout to the newly elected Zohran Mamdani as she complimented the massive amount of people who were showing up and eager to make a change in the world. The group was on fire from beginning to end, and it made me even more of a fan than I already was. You can check out POWER here.

If Illuminati Hotties was the punkier side of the indie rock lineup, opener Phoebe Rings was the dreamier counterpart. Fresh off the release of their new record Aseurai, a proverb described as a hazy feeling around someone, the group went into a relaxing, atmospheric set of keyboard-driven dream pop tracks. The setlist mainly revolved around the new record, playing tracks like “Drifting” and “Playing Star,” as well as. The set served as Phoebe Rings’ second show in New York, having played at Night Club 101 the night before, with vocalist Crystal Choi complimenting the snow and the large sandwiches that are so ingrained in New York’s identity.  The dreamier sounds from the group sounded right at home in the illustrious Brooklyn Paramount, and Phoebe Rings is certainly up there with the newer talent in this genre. You can check out their newest record Aseurai here.