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As the first band caught on the Wednesday night of NXNE, ETERNAL SUMMERS was an official welcome to the festival (not including the free events that had already begun the day before). That can be a big responsibility, and ETERNAL SUMMERS was definitely a solid launching point.

The Drake Underground was already packed at an early hour, which is a testament to the buzz this band has been receiving. Fortunately, the Virginia-based three piece didn’t disappoint and the crowd walked away satisfied.

Imagine THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART but with faster tempos, a female singer, and a slightly harder edge and you’ve pretty much got ETERNAL SUMMERS. Frontwomen Nicole Yun’s vocals are permanently drenched in reverb, giving a slightly ethereal feel to the songs, and bassist Jonathan Woods has a tone so large it almost swallowed the crowd. Toss in spastic drumming from Daniel Cundiff and you’ve got one looooooong summer (see what I did there?).

At first I was really jiving to the music; however, a few songs in it became evident that the core of LITERALLY every track was almost the exact same. Tempos didn’t change, and the same closed hi-hat drum beat and 8th-note bass groove was in effect. This is a little less evident in their recorded material, but live it definitely had the tendency to blend together.

I did like their sound, but I would be interested to see them diversify a bit to keep it fresh. Hopefully we’ll hear some of that in the near future; I know I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground.