The almighty Flatliners concluded Cold World release week with a pair of shows at the iconic Middle East (downstairs) in Cambridge’s Central Square. The first night was a sold-out ripper that found the Flats sandwiched between Signals Midwest and local(ish) heroes A Wilhelm Scream. With Signals on their way to Australia for a ten-day run post-show, the second show featured iconic local support from Rebuilder. And because that show was also Mother’s Day, it was also an all-ages matinee show. But this was no acoustic mimosa brunch – it was an amped-up, circle-pit inspiring barn-burner of a holiday set.
Rebuilder kicked things off at the stroke of 1:00pm. The band – whom I’ve seen close to two-dozen times – wasted no time setting things off. Playing as a keyboardless four-piece and with familiar face Harley Cox (Choke Up, Sadlands) filling in for Brandon Phillips on drums for the occasion, Rebuilder ripped through a set that pulled from the last dozen years of their discography, from 2015’s Rock And Roll In America, through 2017’s Sounds From The Massachusetts Turnpike EP and 2023’s wonderful Local Support. Particularly when playing as a four-piece, the band have a fairly unique stage setup, with dueling vocalists/guitarists Sal Medrano and Craig Stanton at stage right and left respectively, leaving ample space for bassist Daniel Carswell to endlessly prowl the center of the stage with occasionally reckless abandon.
The Flatliners occupied the middle spot on the bill, the figurative home fries in the Mother’s Day brunch of a lineup. The Canadian quartet wasted no time blowing the proverbial roof off the dimly-lit basement confines that are downstairs at the Middle East. “Performative Hours” kicked things off, setting a frenetic bar that was quickly matched by “Eulogy” and “Good, You?,” the first single from Cold World. The Cold World tracks – which also included “And They’re Off,” “Pulpit” and “Inner Peace,” fit seamlessly into the set that pulled from all points in the band’s genre-bending career. It feels a bit lucky that the Flats circa 2026 are anchored in punk rock ethos, meaning that we still get the privilege of watching them in sweaty basement all-ages matinee settings, as their massive guitar hooks and fiery rhythms could easily scale up to much larger outdoor sheds this time of year.
And with that, the main course – the omelet station in the Mother’s Day brunch – none other than New Bedford’s A Wilhelm Scream. While The Flatliners and A Wilhlem Scream have been long-time buds and road dogs together, these two shows somehow marked the first occasion on which they’ve shared the same Boston-area stage. AWS matched the Flats’ energy level and ratcheted it into the stratosphere, setting the tone with “I Wipe My Ass With Showbiz” and “5 to 9,” the one-two punch that kicks off the band’s 2007 release Career Suicide. The quintet put out a new record of their own recently, and sprinkled a healthy dose of tracks from Cheap Heat across their headlining set. “Let It Ride” was a particular highlight. And while this show was obviously an early-afternoon Mother’s Day matinee, energetic A Wilhelm Scream frontman Nuno Pereira’s son Brixton was front and center for the band’s set and their frequent interplay was like watching a multi-generational mirror. The kids, it seems, are alright after all.
Check out more shots from the afternoon’s festivities below!
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