8:30 SHOW
She Speaks in Tongues opens the show w/ Parry
Secret Shame
“These songs are about eating disorders, abuse, addiction, and mental illness–and this one is also about all of those things,” Lena tells the audience–usually speaking for the first time–before the final song in Secret Shame’s set. As the band toured through the spring and summer leading up to Autonomy’s announcement, at least one person at every show would ask when that last song–Zero–was coming out.
Secret Shame first took shape when bassist Matthew met vocalist Lena through mutual friends in summer of 2016. They released their self-titled EP the next year but mostly stuck to DIY shows in their hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. Nathan, who had released the band’s first EP, later joined on drums, and not long after, Aster joined on guitar.
Secret Shame’s debut full-length, Dark Synthetics, received widespread critical acclaim with the single Calm being featured on The New York Time’s weekly playlist and the album landing on many album-of-the-year lists, including #77 on Bandcamp Daily and #1 on Post-Punk.com. Following that momentum, they embarked on an east coast tour (which kicked off at Hopscotch) and recorded the split singles, Dissolve/Pure, with Aster now as the sole guitarist.
Secret Shame refuse to limit their sound to a single genre but instead pull from a wide range of influences including post-punk, death rock, shoegaze, and dream-pop. Infectious guitar melodies and interlocking bass lines lead a narrative shaped by dynamic drums.
There is a sonic tension between rage and melancholy, the beautiful and the bleak, that finds resolution in the way the music reflects the mood of the lyrics. So too does the dynamic range of Lena’s distinct voice, with the subdued resonance of gentler songs like Color Drain beckoning the listener nearer, to her commanding presence in aggressive songs like Chaining Eris, to the manic desperation oscillating between moods in Accelerate and Zero.
Secret Shame headlined Dark Spring Boston in 2022 and has become a regular at Hopscotch Music Festival. Described by Analogue Trash as “one of the hidden gems of the current alternative music scene,” Secret Shame has spent much of 2022 touring extensively. Their energetic live performances capture the “rage trembling under the group’s chiming post-punk” (The New York Times). They have also opened for Xiu Xiu, Wednesday, Soft Kill, Choir Boy, and Vision Video.
Secret Shame recorded Autonomy at Drop of Sun (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Animal Collective) with engineer/producer Alex Farrar. Both musically and lyrically, the band reaches a new level of maturity in the album. On this diverse yet cohesive eleven song record, Lena’s previously-obscure lyrics now directly confront the realities of addiction, body dysmorphia, abuse, and mental illness.
The band is releasing their sophomore album, Autonomy, October 28th before embarking on a month-long full US tour sharing east coast dates with the goth-pop band Vision Video.