Horsegirl and Their Thrilling, Newfound Minimalism, Coming to GAMH on August 16
Photo Credit: Ruby Faye
For years, Penelope Lowenstein, the singer-guitarist of indie rock trio Horsegirl, looked for certain markers to determine if one of the band’s shows was a success. Those signs usually came in the form of frantically dancing crowds, crashing mosh pits and high-decibel roars of approval.
However, in the wake of the band’s recent shift from precocious noise-rock practitioners to minimalist auteurs, Lowenstein has reassessed the merits of a standout performance.
“I feel like my relationship to performing has completely changed from record one to record two,” said Lowenstein. “On this new album, there are slower songs in the set, there are love songs—there is a lot of empty space in the arrangements. Now, I see couples having intimate moments in the audience, or people signing along to the words and it’s such a different feeling. We’re tapping into something much more emotional now, and that’s really wild and fun as a musician to witness.”
That “record one” cited by Lowenstein was Horsegirl’s blistering debut album, “Versions of Modern Performance,” an electrifying blast of feedback and defiant dissonance inspired by acts like Sonic Youth and Television. Recorded while the band—bassist/vocalist Nora Cheng and drummer Gigi Reece round out the trio—were still in their teens, the album garnered widespread critical plaudits and earned the group opening spots on tours for indie rock legends like Pavement and Wilco.
The band could have easily cloned that formula for their follow-up album, but instead Horsegirl took a daring left-turn, producing a sparse, toned-down and emotionally vulnerable follow-up, this year’s excellent “Phonetics On and On.”
Lowenstein and company will bring their newly found appreciation for restraint to the Great American Music Hall on August 16, where they’ll be joined by fellow minimalist maestros Cindy, the great San Francisco outfit that toured with Horsegirl last year.
For “Phonetics On and On,” which was released in February, Horsegirl pursued negative space and withdrawn, hushed atmospherics in lieu of cranked-out guitar histrionics. Inspired by the pared-down approach of the Welsh collective Young Marble Giants, who released one legendary album, “Colossal Youth,” in 1980, Lowenstein said the group found it thrilling to peel away layers of music until only the most elemental traces remained.
“We took a long break between our albums and it wasn’t something we really verbalized going into making this record, but I think we were all in the mindset of making something super different,” said Lowenstein. “It felt really exciting to us—to create something very minimal as a three-piece. We tried to think about strange ways of using our instruments—using the guitar as a percussion piece and then letting the bass carry the melody. There were so many fun possibilities, just letting different instruments take on these unusual roles.”
The result is an entrancing collection of barebones rock—as equally visceral as the band’s voluminous debut, albeit from a different emotional register. Tracks like “In Twos” and “Julie” are masterclasses in the realm of artful absence, hinting at grand, cathartic payoffs that never arrive. “Sport Meets Sound” is a playful, loping number full of earnest, slightly offset vocal harmonies, and “Well I Know You’re Shy” is another bass-driven piece that revels in its understated approach.
Perhaps the most jarring track on the new album is its most nakedly gorgeous one—the Americana-inflected ballad, “Frontrunner.” Full of thick, Twin Peaks-esque guitar chords and cooing, plaintive vocals, the song is unlike anything in the band’s catalog and represents an exhilarating glimpse into what might lie ahead for Horsegirl.
“We’ve been getting asked a lot about that song, because it is so different for us,” said Lowenstein. “It was from the time when Nora and I lived together and I was having just a terrible day with personal heartbreak—that kind of stuff. We just stayed in the apartment all day together and wrote that song. We ended up recording it basically exactly the same way it sounded when we captured it in our phone’s voice memo function. It’s the sound of two roommates living together who also happen to be in a band.”
All members of the band are still living together, although now they are in New York—removed from their hometown of Chicago, where they were a key member of an absolutely dynamic music scene. Alongside contemporaries like Friko, Lifeguard and Sharp Pins (the former put out one of the best albums of 2024 and the latter two have produced a couple of the finest records of 2025), Horsegirl helped make the midwestern metropolis ground zero for engaging indie rock (it’s also a decidedly family affair—Lowenstein’s brother, Isaac, is the drummer for Lifeguard.)
While forever indebted to Chicago, Lowenstein said the band is excited about living in New York, a change of scenery that mirrors the band’s fresh artistic aesthetic.
“I think it was important for us to move away and find our own footing somewhere,” said Lowenstein. “We’re not teenagers anymore—we needed to find ourselves, to do our own thing. And I think we’re really embracing that right now.”
Show Details:
Horsegirl with Cindy and Godcaster
Where: Great American Music Hall
When: 8 p.m., Saturday, August 16
Tickets: $20/$25 (Sold Out!)