Riding high on the crest of a series of dates opening for 2015 breakout star Courtney Barnett, Chastity Belt's NXNE showcase was one of the festival's most hotly anticipated performances — and they did not disappoint. Chastity Belt's eight-song set of alternately dreamy and noisy guitar pop, which focused on the Seattle quartet's acclaimed sophomore LP, 2015's Time to Go Home, suggested that it shouldn't be long before their own name sits atop the marquee.
Kicking things off with Time to Go Home's powerful opener "Drone" ("He was just another man / Trying to teach me something"), Chastity Belt's setlist hit all the high points of that album, from "Cool Slut" — undoubtedly one of the catchiest singles of the year — to "IDC" to the title track's deafening rave-up, and the lyrics, whose wry cynicism occasionally brought to mind Paul Westerberg's Midwestern suburban ennui after a feminist makeover, were often just as catchy as the guitar hooks. On the set-closing "Joke," Chastity Belt also reaffirmed their credentials as a loud, boisterous rock band, as the song ended on a satisfying storm of guitar solos.
Kicking things off with Time to Go Home's powerful opener "Drone" ("He was just another man / Trying to teach me something"), Chastity Belt's setlist hit all the high points of that album, from "Cool Slut" — undoubtedly one of the catchiest singles of the year — to "IDC" to the title track's deafening rave-up, and the lyrics, whose wry cynicism occasionally brought to mind Paul Westerberg's Midwestern suburban ennui after a feminist makeover, were often just as catchy as the guitar hooks. On the set-closing "Joke," Chastity Belt also reaffirmed their credentials as a loud, boisterous rock band, as the song ended on a satisfying storm of guitar solos.