The beths at Emos

Photographed by Vijay Davis

My dad brought home the debut album of the Beths, Future Me Hates Me, just after it came out in 2017. This was one of the first bands I really got into, and they were a lovely one— really solid indie pop— I reckon a bit like if the Sundays had been jazz students from New Zealand. When they toured North America for the first time the next year, Dad and I drove down from Canada to see them play a little dive bar called Mac’s in Lansing. It was my first show, and such a great experience. I still remember eating Ethiopian food beforehand and Dad showing me how to roll the foam noise protectors up to fit in my ears.

A few years later, they were my younger brother’s first show as well, this time in Dallas, where we got a second photo with Beth. This time they’d begun to settle into a solid following in the U.S., particularly amongst the college radio types, and they brought a huge inflatable fish that waved behind them. At Bonnarroo in 2023, Dad and I saw them twice in one day, both onstage and playing a little stripped-back set. They’re such a good band, both dorky and ridiculously musically competent.

Tonight in Austin I got to see them again, this time taking photos, which felt like a beautiful full circle of things. Seeing them now, eight years since I first started listening, they’re still so wonderful. In an interstitial banter bit, they went round introducing one another: Ben (who runs a fantastic food-based tour blog), Tristan (who designed little recorder launchers for the opening number’s solo), Jonathan (who is perhaps the best live guitarist I’ve seen), and Liz (Beth herself). This fifth (!) time seeing the band was the first I hadn’t done so with my Dad next to me, so I felt a little pang of nostalgia. But seeing a handful of other fathers in line and showing their kids how to roll up their foam earbuds, I couldn’t help but smile. The Beths, again, rocked.