I caught This Flood Covers the Earth on Tuesday at the Lily Pad in Inman Square (an art space that doubles as an independently operated venue). I’d been in contact with their singer, Charlie, for quite a few years now (he was once in a band with Western Homes/Mark T. R. Donohue, famed baseball blogger). Aside from a few telling exceptions, I am neither a huge fan of or well versed in contemporary hardcore music, but This Flood quickly became one of those very exceptions. After a brutal opening salvo, moody instrumental passages and dynamic shifts evocative of Drive Like Jehu and June of ’44 defined the edges of their genre overlaps and helped sharpen the teeth of those sweaty, guitar-swinging bursts of aggression. Their split LP with tour mates Lanterns actually captures a good amount of the energy and expertise displayed live. I wish I could comment more on Lanterns (or headliners Motionless), but I spent most of their sets outside of the Lily Pad, talking to Charlie and the men behind History Major Records (one of whom is, appropriately enough, entering the graduate History department at BC). I highly recommend catching these bands on the last month of their tour and/or picking up the split release.

When I got home from that show, I found out TV on the Radio and Yeah Yeah Yeahs were playing a free show courtesy of WFNX in downtown Boston on Thursday. I’d seen both bands on separate occasions at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, a considerably more intimate environment for rock concerts, but free is free, particularly in Boston. TV on the Radio’s Return to Cookie Mountain (released domestically in the fall of 2022) is on the short list of 2006 records I recommend sans qualifiers, but a muddy mix didn’t help their live set. I’d say that they’re more of a studio band if I didn’t recall how stunning the rocked-out version of “Blind” from the club show was, but “Wolf Like Me,” “Staring at the Sun,” and “Dirty Whirlwind” were highlights. For their next record, I hope the guitar players learn another trick beyond “fast indie strumming,” but that’s at least thirty years away.

I didn’t particularly care for Show Your Bones, the most recent Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, but it’s tough to deny their charisma or execution in the live setting, even if some of the songs are duds. Nick Zinner’s guitar tone puts most bands’ to shame, while Karen O. does justice to her current “space prostitute from Blade Runner” attire. Not that I brought my camera, but she has thankfully toned down her destructive impulses toward electronic equipment since I saw them as the first band in a four-band set (with Girls Against Boys headlining). I could have done without the slow-jams near the end of their set, but the encore of “Y-Control” rewarded my patience.

If WFNX decides to continue this trend of having former Touch and Go bands play free shows at Government Center, perhaps the aforementioned GVSB, the Jesus Lizard, Slint, Polvo, Seam, and Big Black would make an excellent line-up. Hell, it might even continue past 8:30pm.

I feel like mentioning this excellent video stream of a recent GVSB concert. The band is playing the Touch and Go anniversary party, but a warm-up/cool-down/anything show in the Boston area would be amazing: one more time with feeling/style.