Loathe @ Paradise Rock Club 11/7

Photography by Andy Alembik

Review by Logan Breen

An eclectic show is always fun. Loathe are an eclectic band, well-suited to the sonically diverse bill on their 2025 North American tour, featuring Spy, a hardcore band out of the Bay Area, and Trauma Ray, a shoegaze band from Fort Worth, Texas. 

The show started with Spy. Their groovy riffs combined with singer Peter Pawlak’s infectious energy had nearly the entire crowd moving throughout their set. Pawlak’s voice was absolutely incredible live, sounding almost akin to a death metal growl. He had good audience interactions between songs, joking and chatting with them. At one point, he asked the audience what their favorite band was. After hearing our answers, he corrected us all and told us it was Loathe. Then he informed us that our second-favorite band was Trauma Ray. After that, he told us that our most hated, worst band of all time was Spy. The instrumentalists fed off of each other very well; the guitarists’ bouncy hardcore riffs were complimented by a tight rhythm section to make for a super-fun set.

After Spy came Trauma Ray. The first note hit like a truck. The lush, heavy, crushing sound that I was used to hearing from their studio output translated extremely well to a live setting, even through my earplugs. Compared to the raucous Spy, they had a more subdued vibe about them, but they still brought the energy, with numerous calls for the audience to jump, or crowd-surf, or otherwise start moving, which were obeyed every time. “Bardo” showcased their energy well. The intro riff is an adrenaline shot: groovy, bouncy, infectiously headbangable, with the rest of the song maintaining a high-energy shoegazy vibe.

While both openers were very different from each other, it was easy to hear common DNA between both of them and Loathe. Similar sounds from both bands appear in Loathe’s eclectic music. This diversity was shown in Loathe’s first song, “Gifted Every Strength,” which begins with a crushingly heavy beat-people-up riff, a la Pantera’s “Walk.” This was a powerful way to start the set. As this song goes on, it showcases Loathe’s MO: sonically diverse, interesting and experimental in its composition, and uncompromisingly heavy when it wants to be. A great way to start out the set and served as an appetizer to show off Loathe’s varied sound.

Another favorite of mine, “Heavy Is the Head That Falls with the Weight of a Thousand Thoughts,” stands as unique within the Loathe discography for its explicit black-metal influence in the first portion of the track, which was very exciting to hear live. They also included the main riff from Slayer’s “Raining Blood” during the instrumental section at the end of the song, which was super cool to hear. A few songs after that, they played a currently unreleased track that appears to be called “Revenant.” This was incredibly  hype to hear. It started with an icy ambient section, reminiscent of “Love in Real Time” off of Loathe’s 2021 ambient album “The Things They Believe,” before transitioning into a chugging, rhythmic riff similar to “Gifted Every Strength.” 

Throughout the set, the live mixing was a great translation of their studio sound to a live setting. The bass, in particular, felt like a sonic punch in the face. Lead singer, Kadeem France, had great stage presence—joking around, headbanging, and laughing with the crowd. The light programming was also excellent throughout. It made the Paradise feel ethereal, majestic, or downright evil depending on the vibe they were trying to capture for that particular song.

While the bands themselves were all great, the venue itself (Paradise Rock Club) felt like a misstep. It was extremely crowded to an uncomfortable degree. I’ve been to other sold-out shows there before, but this one felt much worse than those. I witnessed several people (many more than usual) having to remove themselves from the crowd entirely just to breathe, or even outright leave the venue.

Overall, although the venue felt overstuffed, all three bands were great and came together to make a consistently fun, high-energy, and diverse show.