Subsonic Eye, a Singaporean indie-rock band, traveled to the United States to tour their new album All Around You, stopping in Chicago on the evening of Thursday, October 19th, at Schubas Tavern in the Lakeview neighborhood.
Following the opening band, Cusp, who established an energetic and upbeat atmosphere, Subsonic Eye took stage. A hush of excitement fell over the crowd as ambient tones pulsed through the concert hall and the first song,Performative began. Guitar rhythms by Daniel Borces and Jared Lim echoed alongside the vocals of Nur Wahidah, put together with bass by Samuel Venditti and the drums by Lucas Tee, the septet quickly established their earthy alternative sound.
As the third song, Cabin Fever, began, a heart-beat like drum line brought you even closer to the band and the environment of their music. Soon the guitar chimed in, then velvety vocals. Good vibrations were felt throughout the crowd, causing the Subsonic Eye poster behind the stage to start falling down!
Imagine sitting in the middle of the forest as strings, flutes, and sounds that you almost cannot conceive where they are coming from, wrap around your body in a warm embrace. Subsonic Eye’s live performance captures these nurturing natural aspects of the world around us, as well as the liveliness of living in the bustling urban atmosphere. It doesn’t matter if you are in Singapore or Chicago because the group’s sound will take you into their world.
In a quick post-show interview, lead singer Nur Wahida said the band was influenced initially by a dream-pop shoe-gaze genre, but have changed stride for a more alternative “get-down” sound, taking note from bands like Sonic Youth. While dreamy and ethereal vibes dominated their earlier albums like, Nature of Things – Wahidah remarked on how the band can’t help but incorporate aspects of their old sound into their shows, like vibrant ambient tones between songs
The show ended with the passionfull singing of lyrics in the song, Yearning, which still stood out to me a day later, “Still yearning for your embrace. Feel it grow within me. Take root, I’m learning. Feels real renewing. I feel it move around me. Don’t you feel it too?”
Wahida said that the last song, “Yearning”, is her favorite to perform, “the song is about nature, my connection to nature, how I see parallels between nature and my life in general. It’s nice to have that one song that talks about everything I really care about.”
Experience Subsonic Eye’s transcending sound live and catch one of the remaining shows in their US Tour 2023, bouncing between cities like Brooklyn on October 22nd, Philidelpia on October 24th, Washington D.C. on October 25th, or Dallas on the 28th.