If you’re looking to find a concert that all but guarantees an audience who is really, truly excited to be there, check out any all ages show at Holocene. The forever-cool Central Eastside haunt is typically a 21+ affair, but every so often, they’ll book a show saying, “We might sell fewer cocktails, but screw it—the kids are going to love this one.” 

Such is the case with South Texas shoegaze revivalists, Glare. As a major player in the “nu-gaze” scene, of course the youths of Portland showed up in droves for their show. Enough of them, in fact, that when arriving at Holocene 10 minutes before showtime, the line to get in was halfway up the block. Not bad, kids!

Holocene’s funky layout and geometric stage panels are precisely the right atmosphere for acts like Glare, as well as openers Glixen and MSPAINT. The crowd was already bursting at the seams by the time Mississippi post-hardcore four-piece MSPAINT took the stage, their sound a perfect complement to the louder, more aggressive edges of Glare’s music. 

MSPAINT frontperson DeeDee was strangely captivating, singing into the mic upside down, holding it like the announcer at a wrestling match, barking into the mic dropping down from above the ring. Credit to the band for creating their densely layered racket without a guitar—a breath of fresh air during a show otherwise gleefully worshipping the instrument.

Phoenix shoegazers Glixen helped restore the instrument to its rightful glory. Though cut from the same gauzy cloth as fellow shoegaze revivalists Wisp, Glixen’s aesthetic and attitude feel more intentional. Earlier this year, singer-guitarist Aislinn Ritchie told Stereogum that she’s wanted to be a star since she was nine years old—a desire shining bright when she performs. Dressed in a knit halter top, white skirt, black gloves, and bondage wristbands, she was a captivating presence, enough to make up for the fact that their set, while excellent to slow-headbang to, was far from revelatory. They have the juice to get as big as Wisp, but do they have what it takes to reach the heights of their shoegaze forebears?

That’s a question to ponder during Glare’s hour-long set as well. Shoegaze was once known as “the scene that celebrates itself.” In keeping with that energy, nu-gaze bands celebrate the genre’s Mount Rushmore (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, and Chapterhouse) to the point of sometimes not being able to escape the mountain’s shadow. One listen to Glare’s debut full-length, Sunset Funeral, will convince you that they’ve got something going for them, though watching them perform solidifies the fact that it’s not quite enough to meaningfully separate them from the trappings of the subgenre.

It’s a shame, because the quartet’s power and talent are difficult to ignore when they’re standing on a stage in front of you, their faces obscured by a lack of foreground lighting, playing for a room full of people who discovered the genre via its late-pandemic TikTok boom. Early singles like “Into Me” and the Heavenly EP cut “Floating,” sounded larger than life in the small space, the singers' hazy voices hypnotizing the crowd. 

Ghostly renditions of new songs, “2 Soon 2 Tell,” “Mourning Haze,” and set-closer “Sungrave” came right up to the edge of, “YES! This band could be massive in a year!” If they had pushed harder, their ascendancy might feel all but assured. Crushingly, they stopped just short of that edge, a cold dread sinking in, leaving you wondering what they could be if they tried to spread their sonic wings a little more.

Is it unfair to judge a band not on what they are, but what they could be? No doubt. But, it’s a fact that Glare is simply not Slowdive or Ride. What might they become if they stop aiming to emulate their heroes? Would they slip into another genre entirely, or would they follow in the footsteps of Turnstile, whose hardcore roots are now but a color in their sonic rainbow? Your guess is as good as ours, but we hope they give themselves the freedom to find out.