Hot Gig Alert (5.17): LA’s Girlfriends bring the “Over My Dead Body” tour to Boston

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Hot Gig Alert (5.17): LA’s Girlfriends bring the “Over My Dead Body” tour to Boston

(photo by Nathan James)

Nothing screams rock and roll more than sitting down for a pre-caffeine fix interview, and that’s just how we roll when the band you’re speaking to finds themselves in Belgium that day. Girlfriends are worth the early phone call, and Nick Gross and Travis Mills were there for an incredible reason. The reason was to open for a goal artist for the band, according to Mills, the scene queen that is Avril Lavigne. Mills quipped when asked about the tour, “When we formed Girlfriends, it was always a goal for us to tour with Avril Lavigne since the formation of the band. It is truly a dream come true.” The band formed in late 2019, said Mills and Gross, and considering the imminent shutdowns, the duo had nothing but time to create the foundation of the band, their goals, and of course, tons of bangers.

And come Monday, the band can put it all on the floor live. Fresh off the Avril dates, the duo embarks on their first headlining run in a minute in Chicago and will hit the iconic Brighton Music Hall in Boston Wednesday. It doesn’t stop there, though, as the band will jump practically right into a tour as support with some little bands you may have heard of called Pierce the Veil and The Used. When talking with the band, Gross commented on the thirst for touring, considering their inability to do as much with their first two releases. Said Gross, “We’re just excited to be touring these (past releases). We weren’t able to tour that much on the first two.” During their time with Lavigne, Gross talked about their impressive 11-song set, which is a little bit longer with their headline sets, “it will be around 15.”

If the setlist was already a puzzle for the duo, the release of their banging new EP “Over My Dead Body” yesterday will surely throw a wrench in the plans. Every track slaps, and the EP comes in at a very tight 12 minutes and 54 seconds. But don’t get it twisted. Past decades of music have led us to believe the perfect pop song is about three and a half minutes, but Mills and Gross challenge that theory with only one track, even breaking the three-minute mark ( a whole five seconds over in Thanks Anyway). While fans had already heard the previously released Life’s a Brittany, to me, the stars include the aforementioned Thanks Anyway, where T. Mills sounds like he doesn’t even pause for a breath to the gem that is Plastic.  The lyrical genius that has been well crafted over time for the duo brings in snarky and quippy lyrics like “Plastic, We’re pretend, It was Tragic, No matter what, I’ll never make you happy.” Or with moments I truly actually howled at with lines like “Life’s a bitch, her name’s Brittany” to “I wish that you would lose my number, I know what you did last summer,” found in the title track.

Overall, the wealth of experience below Mills’ and Gross’s belts combined with collaborating with a fellow musician in themselves in their producer of choice for this EP, Andrew Goldstein (former frontman of loved pop punk band, The Friday Night Boys), absolutely shines through. It’s a non-stop wave of energy, filled with bangers, quippy lyrics, and vast turns of events with moments like an insane drum solo it appears to be in Thanks Anyway. While speaking to the duo, Mills did comment, “For these five songs, we weren’t writing them with the intention of writing/putting them out on an EP.” But to at least this listener, the EP read like the five stages of closure. But you know, closure of accepting that you can’t stand someone and you’re not at fault for that.

But it’s time for this EP to come to life. As aforementioned, the band hits Boston this upcoming Wednesday (5/17) at Brighton Music Hall. I caught the band playing one of their first gigs and first tours in Covid back in 2021 while supporting one of their friends in Mod Sun. And the band’s performance was already electrifying at the time despite being so new as a unit (we’re talking, I believe it was their third live show), so the fact that now it’s their turn to headline this room, it’s sure to be something you don’t want to miss! To warm up the crowd, John Harvie, an up-and-comer in his own right, will kick off the night at 8:00 PM, and limited tickets are still available here. But jump on it, a Girlfriends show can’t be missed, and we’ll see you then!

About Author

Colleen

Colleen has been writing about music since 2009. Interviewing bands since the glory days of Warped and has continued to do so for now over fourteen years. As well as doing freelance for other publications, the love for everything rock continues today.