Squid Setlist

Crispy Skin
Building 650
The Cleaner
G.S.K.
Swing (in a Dream)
Cowards
Cro-Magnon man
Undergrowth
The Blades
Well Met (Fingers Through the Fence)
— Encore —
The Hearth and Circle Round Fire
Narrator

FearDorian Setlist

In Turn For?
Aspen
Every Time
I.V.
Forecasting
Pray 4 The People
Backbone (Unreleased Song)
Foolin (Unreleased Song)
RBF (Unreleased Song)
What Happened
Run Dry
Acrid Taste
Shame On You

Tour Dates

May 10 – Des Moines, IA @ Wooly’s
May 11 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
May 13 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Hall
May 14 – Columbus, OH @ A&R Music Bar
May 16 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
May 17 – Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
May 19 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
May 20 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
May 21 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
May 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw

We last saw Squid at the Fine Line in Feb, 2024, and were pretty excited to see them again on Friday night. But first, the opening act.

FearDorian stepped on stage with his MC Ethan, and had a confession to make: “It’s my first time here (Twin Cities). And if I’m being honest, it’s been the worst day of my life.” He went on to say that he and Ethan almost got arrested, and even worse, he lost the external hard drive to three years of his music. Gone!

FearDorian is young, really young, an 18-year-old rapper from Atlanta. His sound has been described by Hearing Things as “… a bespoke blend of Milwaukee lowend, Midwest emo, vaporwave, and Atlanta staples like trap and snap must.”

If I’m being honest, I have to say that I don’t know any of these subgenres. But I will say that Pitchfork said his “… beats are potent enough to leave you with a contact high.”

FearDorian is touring with his sophomore album Leaving Home and he sang songs from it like “Aspen”, “Forecasting” and a favorite of his “I.V.” He also sang the shortest song of the evening “What Happened” and a crowd favorite “Run Dry”. And near the end of the set, a stage hand stepped on stage with a camera in his left hand, waving something with his right.

“My hard drive,” FearDorian said, as if being reunited with a long-long friend.

It was a cozy fit on stage for Squid and their myriad of instruments. As we wrote in our prior review: “The band consists of Ollie Judge on drums and lead vocals, Louis Borlase and Anton Pearson on guitar, Laurie Nankivell on bass and Arthur Leadbetter on keys. As Pitchfork writes in their review of O Monolith: ‘Squid fires off in a lot of directions.’ After all, how many punk bands have synthesizers, samplers and modulators; play gongs, cowbells and tambourines; (Leadbetter plays a mean triangle) and prominently feature trumpet and cornet solos? (Nankivell)”

At the time Squid was supporting their sophomore album, O Monolith. What I know now is they had actually completed their third album, Cowards, before going on that tour.

Cowards is an ambitious project. It is about evil with nine songs that reckon with cults, charisma and apathy. The guidepost was Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. The inspirations ranged from David Lynch and Kate Busch to books on serial killers. “Blood on the Rocks” is inspired by the Charles Manson murders.

It was a rare treat to be so close to a band working together to create something new. The building blocks of the band are built solidly on a post punk vibe, but from there they are bound to go in any direction:

“Cleaner” a descendant of the Talking Heads.

“GSK” a sonic jam session that involved the band moving from instrument to instrument.

“Swing” a looping trumpet intro flowing into a jam session.

“Cro-Magnon Man” a little futuristic, a little robotic, nearly turning into a space opera.

“Blades” a cacophony of sound that brought the crowd to a roar.

Personally, it was a highlight of the year to see five musicians working in tandem, pushing in so many directions, and I look forward to their return.