Fraternal Twin frontman Tom Christie first gained notice a decade ago as the bassist with the New York band Quarterbacks, which specialized in short, fast punk songs. Christie started Fraternal Twin in 2015 and released the band’s full-length Homeworlding in 2016. In contrast to Quarterbacks, whose tunes often ran a minute, Fraternal Twin favors slow, languorous compositions that have elements of dream pop and shoegaze, with Christie’s guitar leading the way. The band’s new album Halo Fell Forever keeps the tempos dreamy, and Christie has a knack for cutting the lassitude with classic pop melodies. Christie wrote some of Halo Fell Forever a decade ago, but the album works as a statement about keeping yourself together in a world that militates against relaxation and peace of mind. As he says in the press materials for Halo, the album’s “Medicine” is about “anxiety, rumination and deciding to get on antidepressants.” Halo is post-pop that isn’t as depressing as it could be, and I think it peaks with “Lucidity,” which is Christie at his most beguiling. On Aug. 11 at Betty’s Grill, Fraternal Twin gets support from Ditch, Dream Wave and Swimming Sisters.
8 p.m. at Betty’s Grill
407 49th Ave. N.
