THE HAILS / NEVER ENDING FALL – BRIGHTON MUSIC HALL – BOSTON
Photo Credit: Luke Rogers
By James Marinaccio
The Hails with Never Ending Fall at the Brighton Music Hall, February 21st 2025
This show was one where enthusiasm for the opening band easily equaled that of the main act. Never Ending Fall was the opener for The Hails in this scenario. The venue for the show was Brighton Music Hall, a 500-person venue situated on Brighton Ave in the Allston neighborhood of Boston. This area is where most Boston University students call home. And whether they were Boston University students or not, the concert crowd was predominantly college-aged indie rock fans. That night at Brighton Music Hall, there were two flavors of indie rock.
Never Ending Fall (NEF) is a band currently based out of LA, but originally from Maryland. The band’s first album was released in 2020, and since then, they have built a very loyal following (at least from what I witnessed). The band brings tons of energy and puts a lot of focus into engaging the crowd. These efforts are very well received.
The crowd was jumping and singing along to a good number of their songs. NEF’s music is very guitar-heavy, with at times three electric guitars being played on stage at once. And by “played,” these guitars were being ripped. Did they drown each other out at times? Certainly. Did the patrons care? Not even in the slightest. NEF’s music is nostalgic in that it reminded me of blink-182 and The All-American Rejects. If an opening band’s purpose is to warm up a crowd, these dudes went above and beyond the call of duty.
The Hails’ set was definitely a change in pace. They took the crowd away from pop-punk and more into slower, melodic songs. The Hails formed while in college at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Whether by coincidence or not, they reminded me a lot of Flipturn, another Florida-based band. And like Flipturn, The Hails are currently gaining a lot of attention. They currently have over 570k monthly listeners on Spotify, which is very respectable for a younger band, only releasing their first EP in 2020.
Their sound is somewhere between Tame Impala, Foster the People, and Portugal. The Man. Their live set sounded pretty much exactly like the studio recordings of their songs. I would recommend checking out their Audiotree album released in May of 2024 to get a feel for their live show capabilities. Robbie Kingsley, the lead vocalist, sounds exactly the same no matter the situation. Kingsley has a unique and smooth delivery of vocals that anchors the band’s sound. Funky bass lines were supplied by Andre Escobar, and Franco Solari gave notable contributions on the keyboard. Solari adds a warm and groovy vibe to The Hails’ sound.
All in all, it was a very fun night showcasing two different flavors of indie rock: Never Ending Fall with a pop-punk-centric performance and The Hails with a much more melodic and introspective variety of music.
To learn more about The Hails, check out their Website
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