Portland, Maine’s Weakened Friends released one of the best albums of 2025, Feels Like Hell, back in October, and in mid-November, they finally brought their record-release tour to the Sinclair in Cambridge’s Harvard Square, a bit of a triumphant return to their adopted hometown area.
The evening was kicked off by the upstart PINKLIDS. If I’m being honest, I’d not heard or heard of PINKLIDS until seeing the lineup for this show. If I’m still being honest, I’m super glad I’ve now heard of them. Hailing from the Cape Cod gateway town of Wareham, Massachusetts, PINKLIDS are probably the coolest new band that I’ve seen in quite some time. Years, anyway. Boiling PINKLIDS down to one specific sound is a bit of a fool’s errand, but it’s safe to say that the band would have fit in nicely in the post-punk playground that was the Lower East Side decades ago. There are healthy doses of post-punk and surf rock and maybe even Stray Cats-style rockabilly. Like if Fugazi were an art-rock band in a Tarantino movie. Angular riffs and frequent tempo changes abound, and vocalist Amber Lawson commands the whole thing with unbridled camp and confidence.
Occupying the direct support spot on this show were Weakend Friends’ tourmates on this run, Nova One. Nove One are yet another band that I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t previously familiar with and am proud to say that I now am familiar with. The brainchild of Roz Raskin, Nove One is very much a concept band, a feminine-presenting yet genderfluid, retro-futuristic style and sound that evokes a sort-of late-60’s girl group vibe. Think like a group of Ronnie Spector’s with matching pink wigs and vertically-striped black-and-white blouses, in a dream pop/alternative band. “pick my petals” and set-closer “you were right” were personal favorites.
Weakened Friends hit the stage at 9:30pm and instantly launched into the one-two punch of “Not For Nothing” and “NPC” from the wonderful Feels Like Hell. The Portland-based trio – Sonia Sturino on vocals and guitar, Annie Hoffman on bass and backing vocals, Adam Hand on drums – have solidified into a powerful live force over the better part of the last decade. We’ve seen them in a variety of settings over the years – opening slots at the now-defunct Great Scott (R.I.P.), in-store acoustic performances at record stores, etc. – and it’s fun to see them now, having levelled up in every conceivable way while still maintaining the rawness and intensity of the earlier days. The light and video shows and adding layers of pre-recorded instrumentation bring a certain increased gravity to the occasion. Earlier songs like trio of “Main Bitch” and “Waste” and “Common Blah” which were performed in a mini set for the old heards translate immaculately to the bigger stage and the increased production. Given that it was an album-release show of sorts, the band blazed through ten of Feels Like Hell‘s dozen tracks, including the cover of Natalie Imbruglia’s cover of Ednaswap’s “Torn,” which was prefaced by a callout to all of the children of the 90s and to the elders of the 80s which, as a person born in 1979, made me feel some type of way (read as: geriatric).
Hoffman bounces endlessly around the stage for the duration of the set, her smile and infectious energy serving as contrast to Sturino’s growling guitars and full-throated lyrics that deal heavily and self-doubt and apathy and anhedonia. There’s a raw angst and a sense of unbridled aggression in a Weakened Friends set circa 2025 that would have fit right in Seattle (or at least Northampton MA) thirty years ago. It’s no wonder the band caught the attention of Jack White and opened at a few shows earlier this year. And with the added production, there’s the sense that we’ll soon be able to say that we were lucky to catch Weakened Friends headlining in a room as small as the 525-capacity Sinclair.
I felt at the time and still feel a week removed from the event that this particular show was one of the best – if not the very best – that I saw this year. Check out more pictures in the galleries below!