One of indie music’s current buzz bands, garage-pop upstarts Hinds played their highly anticipated first D.C. show at U Street Music Hall on Thursday night. The all-female quartet from Madrid made an auspicious debut, delighting a packed house as they put a Spanish spin on familiar American sounds.
Bursting upon the scene with a well-received two-song demo in 2014, Hinds (formerly known as Deers) are, by their own admission, still a “baby band,” but they boast a youthful temerity that emboldened them to release a cheekily titled “greatest hits” EP well before their first proper album, Leave Me Alone, dropped this January. The precocious twenty-somethings operate by the self-proclaimed motto “Nuestras mierdas, nuestras reglas” (“our shit, our rules).” Their rigorously DIY ethos has served them well thus far as they’ve honed their craft with relentless touring, sharing bills with heroes like The Black Keys and The Strokes, and becoming the first Spanish band to play a main stage at Glastonbury.
On Thursday, Hinds’ music hardly sounded as confrontational as their credo might suggest, though at moments they showed depth beyond their sunny, party-friendly image. The set began with the mid-tempo “Warning with the Curling,” as founding members Ana Garcia Perrote and Carlotta Cosials delivered hazy vocals (in slightly-accented English) and mildly dissonant rhythm guitars over Ade Martin’s pulsing bass line and Amber Grimbergen’s thumping, Moe Tucker-esque percussion.
Indeed, the hypnotic opening number (arguably the evening’s best) came off a bit like a toned-down homage to the Velvet Underground’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties” or “Venus in Furs,” but the mood brightened considerably during the rest of the hour-long set. The jaunty “Trippy Gum” featured vintage girl-group harmonies and sparkling lead-guitar melodies, while “Fat Calmed Kiddos” started with a twangy strut before launching into a frolicking chorus.
Displaying a rambunctious, beer-fueled energy and endearing camaraderie, the Madrilenas played it mostly fast and loose, but showed a knack for pulling off mid-song tempo changes that helped propel their catchy hooks. Evoking genres such as low-fi indie rock, 60s pop, feminist punk, rockabilly, and surf rock, their sound verged on pastiche at times, but with an earnest, exuberant charm all their own.
Relatively older favorites like “Bamboo” and “Castigadas En El Granelo” (“Punished in the Barn”) got the most spirited reaction from the aficionados in the crowd, but newer standouts like “Garden” and “San Diego” also had fans bouncing in front of the stage. A slowed-down interpretation of Dead Ghosts’ “When It Comes to You” sounded more poignant than the original, and the instrumental track “Solar” provided another plaintive respite from the show’s generally adrenalized pace.
At the end of the encore, a boisterous, crowd-requested rendition of Thee Headcoatees’ “Davy Crockett” sent fans home happy, but not before a huge throng of them stopped by the merch table to take selfies with the musicians while snapping up t-shirts and LPs. Hinds are clearly a band of the moment, and it should be interesting to watch their development to see if they continue to grow into something more than just that.
