Show Review: PFFU, Gummy?, Main Era, Systems Nominal at The Broadway, NYC.
January 23rd, 2026.
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“Hi, sorry, I thought I knew you” -Anonymous
January 24th, 2025
A storm is brewing. An icy cold front is sweeping through the southern United States, curving upwards into the mid-atlantic. Weather models predict up to 16 inches of snow in New York City throughout Sunday. So in preparation, we high tailed it to Brooklyn’s The Broadway last night for a double album release show featuring PFFU, Gummy?, Main Era, and Systems Nominal. Heavy coats and heavy riffs were piled everywhere all over the place, here’s what we recall from the night:
Systems Nominal describe themselves as “Not a shoegaze band” on Spotify. Then what are they? That’s a harder question to answer. Sometimes it was scream-psych, sometimes slenchy alternative. Every song had something to offer that the song before it didn’t, it was a kaleidoscope of rock. We couldn’t shake the mental comparisons we were making between Systems Nominal and one of the major bands of the 90’s, but we’ll keep that to ourselves. Head to toe in black, they set the tone of the night, covering the full range of sound and then some.
Main Era were visiting from Boston and were celebrating the release of their album IV of Wands, out now on Bandcamp and Nina Protocol. We were in mid-conversation when their first chords rang and we stopped speaking mid-word when the single droning riffs somehow growled and swelled in volume as if they were alive. From there our whole world got turned upside down. We couldn’t tell where or when songs were starting or finishing, or how long they were. They made the verse/chorus/verse structure seem like feeble child’s play. The experience was like The Wondrous Boat Ride from the original Willy Wonka movie. Main Era took us on a white knuckle trip into a tunnel of ungovernable sound. When we reached the other side, we were transformed.
Gummy? were also celebrating an album release, their debut EP Eternity Under Me Is Static. Through distorted rotary phone coated vocals, they unleashed a new EP’s worth of sticky riffs. People in the crowd kept shouting out the bands name in between songs, like it was some sort of celebratory expletive. At one point they played what we believe was a cover of Fugazi’s I’m So Tired. We asked and they told us but as a rodent our memory is mostly a fickle illusion. As a final show of fireworks the pit opened up on the last number, the human manifestation of subatomic collision.
PFFU were like My Bloody Valentine after a triple shot of espresso. Many songs were hazy daydreams with squealing and contorting lead guitar, lots of whammy and pitch bending. Lead vocals were gentle and light, a featherweight instrument floating above the gravity of the music. The vocals sometimes reached a height that nearly crossed over into whistle territory. Our favorite songs though were their mid-tempo jams that locked us into a groove, giving us a structure to sway and bounce under the melodies.
The Broadway is one of our favorite NYC venues, something interesting is always happening at the main level bar. Jaws was playing on the projector and Goldfinger on the main TV. An entire platoon of anarchist skate punks showed up towards the end of the gig. It was midnight, the show was over, but the place was packed to the gills. Something else must have been going on, we didn’t stick around to find out what though. If you missed the gig, connect with Systems Nominal, Main Era, Gummy?, PFFU, and listen to all the new music these groups are putting out. See you around, Rrrat Pack.
| Keywords: | New York City | The Broadway | PFFU | Gummy? | Main Era | Systems Nominal |
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