Knifeplay

Tour: opening for RIDE - NORTH AMERICA 2024
Indoor Venue: THE CONCERT HALL, TORONTO (capacity 1244)

SETLIST🎸: feel free to add to the comment section if you're familiar with their songs (this was my first time experiencing the band)

MEMBERS:
TJ Strohmer – vocals, guitar
Alex Stackhouse – bass
Max Black – piano, synth
Johnny Klein – lead guitar
Johanna Baumann – guitar, vocals
Joey Ginaldi – drums

BIOGRAPHY: (courtesty of topshelfrecords website)
Knifeplay is a band that eludes definition, existing somewhere between the nihilistic detachment of shoegaze and the emotional honesty of folk songwriting. Originally a solo bedroom recording project of Tj Strohmer’s, they’ve made a slow and careful shift into a collaborative, production focused, studio recorded band. Through their ever-expanding genre palette, range of fidelities, and long list of collaborators runs a unique current that ties everything together.

Informed by his experiences living in Philadelphia and their contrast with his rural southern Maryland upbringing, Strohmer’s sometimes straightforward, sometimes dreamlike, but always philosophical lyrics feature scenes of darkness from many different aspects of life. He deals with themes of death, drugs, heartbreak, abuse, and self-destruction, all expressed through a delicate vocal style, which, combined with the band’s lush orchestral instrumentation gives a beautiful lightness to the heavy subject matter.

Since their 2017 debut of home-recorded EPs, Knifeplay have earned a dedicated cult following through acclaimed debut album Pearlty (2019) and a lengthy B-Sides Compilation (2020), all either self-released or through small run tape labels. In 2021 they entered the studio with producer Jeff Zeigler, known for his work with Kurt Vile, Nothing, The War on Drugs, and more, first producing the Hurt Someone EP (Born Losers Records) before recording their upcoming sophomore full-length, Animal Drowning, to be released via Topshelf Records on October 19, 2022.

[vicb]

Thanks so much for putting this up. Went to see Ride in Montreal May 13th. There was another opening act (Karma Glider) before them, so their setlist was only 2 songs due to timing. Great, great band. Lovely people.

[The-luminousworm]

I’m so confused, why do they genuinely never play songs of of pearlty? Do they not like that album, are the songs just really hard to recreate live? I really wanna see them play feel u or lover but I can’t find a single video of them playing it.