(flip)turned into a fan | flipturn

roadrunner | allston, ma

4.9.2025 | 8 pm

lineup: @flipturnband @arcydrive

i first heard of flipturn from a friend who recommended their song rodeo clown to me & immediately i fell in love. i was (flip)turned into a fan — sorry, sorry, i apologize. it captures the essence of a struggle with the weight of life that is all too familiar. it made me feel so seen & understood. it is absolutely a comfort song for me now. so when i heard flipturn was coming to boston, i went straight to work contacting their management team. i heard back fairly quickly, only for the line to go dead with their PR team. little did i know the radio station i shoot for had ALSO put me down for flipturn & you know.. casually hadn’t mentioned it to me. the evening before the show while i was walking back to the T from chinatown i got an email from the radio station coordinator saying i was approved...

it was show night & of course i was taking public transit in boston & of course the bus was delayed.. then stuck in traffic. but i do take some of the blame for giving myself an extra couple minutes to get ready. so you best believe i was speed walking the half mile from the bus stop to roadrunner at 7:50 pm. the ability to turn an eleven minute walk into a nine minute one is something i really under appreciate. & as always it was raining. i swear to god, every time i’ve gone to roadrunner it rains either before or after the show — or sometimes the entire time. enough about me, let’s get into the show.

photo by @danitookthose

arcy drive, a self described ‘attic rock’ band, opened the show. the four member: nick, austin, pat, & brooke started their band in a shed in brooke’s backyard. their music gives me a sort of california beach rock feeling. it makes me long for warmer weather which boston ‘giveth & taketh’ so fast. fairly new to the scene, arcy drive released their first full length album in 2022 with their next album release titled, the pit, coming out on april 18th of this year. the crowd was engaged & reflecting the energy of the band with their hands waving in the arm to the beat of the drums. all of their music has a really lovely feel good energy to it but roll my stone took the cake saturday night.

while waiting for flipturn, dani, a photographer i had been chatting with, grabbed a couple ciders which was the appropriate choice for an indie rock show. she was also gracious enough to share a couple photos of arcy drive with me because her zoom lens is much better. & thirty minutes later it was go time. flipturn consists of founding members dillon, tristan, & madeline who started the band their senior year of high school. to the deafening cheering of a sold out venue, the members of flipturn humbly walked out onto the stage waving at the crowd & bathed in red lighting. the opening synth beat of juno washed over the crowd as flipturn began their show. complete sidenote, why were there so many songs titled, juno, released this year? am i missing something? the fans were practically vibrating & jumping at the front of the barricade, they knew every lyric by heart. six songs in, they played my favorite flipturn song, rodeo clown, which i mentioned at the beginning of this little piece. you could tell just by the energy shift how much this piece meant to everyone in the audience. like i said, it’s such a reaffirming song about “the weight of everything” & “holding it down” anyways.

halfway through the set i had made my way to my friend who had made it to the show that night with her two younger sisters. for one of her sisters, it was her first concert. i am so glad i made it to them just in time for august. everyone in the venue was singing at the top of their lungs pouring all their hearts into the verses — myself included. there were shared moments during that song where fans & friends were making eye contact & silently saying, “i see you.” what a way to memorialize heartbreak hahaha & know that everyone has gone through it. it really is a integral part of the human experience. i discovered that i really enjoy their song, if it is, at the show which dillon mentioned he wrote using some words he learned in therapy. flipturn concluded their set with space cowboy during which confetti canons went off, showering the crowd in yellow & red bits of paper, matching the colors on their latest album burnout days released this year. like any good band they came back on for an encore, performing one of their most popular songs, chicago. i feel like discovering & hearing this song live this week is maybe a sign of serendipity. that I was meant to find this song, as a way of telling me i may be destined & bound for chicago this summer.

listening to flipturn & arcy drive on shuffle as i write this review has made me realize that their sounds complement each other & blend almost seamlessly. but you probably already knew that. anyways, there’s an easy way to make a big chunk of your summer playlist for warmer weather. stick all your arcy drive favorites in with your flipturn songs… add some laney jones, malcom todd, richy mitch & the coal miners, maybe some 2000s twee indie music… & get out into nature.

xoxo,

ruse