Beloved Illinois rock band Hum played its first show since 2019 last night (May 15) at New York’s Brooklyn Paramount as part of the annual Slide Away festival, offering the live debuts of three songs from its 2020 comeback album Inlet in front of a sold-out, refreshingly multi-generational audience.
For the uninitiated, the Champaign, Il., quartet is largely remembered for its 1995 alternative rock hit “Stars” but never quite broke through to the mainstream with its two albums for major-label RCA, 1995’s You’d Prefer An Astronaut and 1998’s Downward Is Heavenward, before disbanding in 2000. Especially early in its career, Hum was dreadfully misclassified as just another soft-to-loud/Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana wannabe, and remained criminally under-appreciated for its heavy/stoner-friendly Midwestern shoegaze vibes long after its breakup.
That began to finally change in the mid-2010s, when Hum reunited for shows with the similarly reconstituted Failure and began work on a new album, Inlet, which emerged during the first pandemic summer of 2020. A towering musical statement and arguably the strongest release of the band’s career, it hit like a lightning bolt for a new generation of younger listeners, thousands of whom packed the Paramount last night while moshing in a circle pit and crowd-surfing from the first moments.
Hum had performed some of the Inlet material prior to the pandemic and the 2021 death of drummer Bryan St. Pere, but last night it premiered album opener “Waves,” the ’90s alt-rock throwback-sounding “Step Into You” and Inlet finale “Shapeshifter,” which expanded to nearly 12 minutes. With Shiner drummer Jason Gerken more than capably stepping in for St. Pere, highlights included the crushing “Desert Rambler,” the luminous guitar interplay during the atmospheric breakdown of “Folding” and frontman Matt Talbott endearingly hitting the wrong chord during the into portion of “Stars,” which the crowd nevertheless sung back at near-deafening volume.
“Matt was very concerned that people didn’t care about Inlet at all,” Nothing frontman/Slide Away organizer Domenic “Nicky” Palermo recently told SPIN of his efforts to convince Hum to get back onstage. “And I had to tell him, no, they absolutely do. People are dying to hear these songs. All I could do is offer the support and reiterate how much Hum’s music means to people.”
“Thank you to everyone involved and all of you,” Talbott said quietly during the encore, nodding to the work put in by Palermo and others to make Slide Away a more DIY, can’t-miss alternative to corporate music festivals. On Saturday, the band’s Instagram account reposted a fan account of the evening with 100%, bullseye, prayer hands and devil hands emojis signaling its agreement with the sentiments.
“There were SO MANY young kids their crowd surfing, singing along to every song and it straight up almost brought a tear to my eye,” the attendee wrote. “Music is like a revolving door and last night is a testament to how timeless it is. Seeing the younger generation so fucking pumped to see a band that was around well before some of them were alive was a trip to see. Much respect to Slide Away for giving the old, new, and future generations something to hold onto and look forward to. It was really beautifully put together. Everything you hate about festivals need not apply here. This is just a cool show.”
Hum will play again in Brooklyn tonight before Slide Away continues to Chicago and Los Angeles, but its future plans, if any, remain unknown. Beyond Nothing, which performed its 2016 album Tired of Tomorrow in full, Slide Away featured sets from reunited U.K. shoegaze band Chapterhouse, plus loveliescrushing, Bleary Eyed and Frankie Rose.
Here is Hum’s set list:
“Little Dipper”
“Iron Clad Lou”
“Desert Rambler”
“Green to Me”
“Afternoon With the Axolotls”
“Waves”
“Step Into You”
“Stars”
“Folding”
“Shapeshifter”
“I’d Like Your Hair Long”
“I Hate It Too”