Slothrust by Marcelo Mayen
For over ten years, Boston’s Slothrust have been the perfect combination of singer-instrumentalist Leah Wellbaum’s honest, catchy songwriting and drummer Will Gorin’s steady, energetic backbeat. In 2024 they marked the ten-year anniversary of a standout album, Of Course You Do, with a tour, and they’re continuing the celebratory run into 2025 with another lap of the “Of Course You Did” tour.
Slothrust’s music covers so much emotional and tonal ground it almost defies categorical description. “King Arthur’s Seat,” from their 2021 album, Parallel Timeline, is all quiet slow-dance power with a winsomeness that recalls The Cranberries. The track immediately after it, “A Giant Swallow,” would fit perfectly in a playlist between plaintive singer-songwriter Noah Kahan and ’90s alt-rockers Belly.
“Beowulf,” from Of Course You Do, is the alternate reality in which Carlos Santana decided to join the Melvins. “7:30 AM,” another from Of Course, summons Modern Color and The Frights. “Sleep Eater,” from 2016’s Everyone Else, slumbers under a blanket of Hozier and The Crane Wives and wakes up to the energy of PUP or Wet Leg. Yet Slothrust execute all these stylistic fusions and swings creatively and coherently.
When Wellbaum and Gorin first decided to collaborate, they wanted the sound to be heavy, and it is true that bass guitar sits very intentionally inside every Slothrust song, with timbres ranging from the doomy low end of Electric Wizard to the nimble kick of Paul McCartney. But a core element of their music is a groove that challenges every still-standing concert attendee to bob their head, at least a little bit. At live-set volumes, it’ll be hard not to jump for every chorus.
Slothrust are joined on tour by Weakened Friends, another relentlessly catchy, creative band from New England. Each turn of each song reveals a collective energy that builds on itself, held together by singer-guitarist Sonia Sturino, bassist-vocalist Annie Hoffman and drummer Adam Hand. As a trio they’re locked in and mutually amplifying, and if you have to pick a track to put on repeat while soaking up the sun, make it “Blue Again.”
Slothrust and Weakened Friends play 8pm Sunday, January 26 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. slothrust.com ~ Erik Kvarnberg
