Swathed in black clothes and waves of cigarette smoke, fans across Austin gathered at Mohawk to see feeble little horse gallop across the stage and rock out its new album, bitknot, on July 21.

Written by Julianna Riccioli

Photos by Maia Aguirre

The stables have opened for feeble little horse’s ‘bitknot’ tour, supporting the band’s newest album, this summer. Whereas Girl with Fish, feeble’s second full-length album, felt softer and more in sync with the indie-shoegaze genre the band lands in, bitknot is on the glitchier side of shoegaze, with the heavy guitars being heavier than ever, and the songwriting distinctly sharper. bitknot nibbles at itself to reveal both soft elements that allude to twee and a hidden mosh-pit center. 

At Austin’s Mohawk, a venue known for its multilevel space and divinely strong pours, opener Touching Ice took to the stage around eight after a slight delay, but this was of no matter to the eager concertgoers. Moshing along with their electronic elements mixed with feedback distortions and poetry lyricism, fans jumped, lolled, and screamed on every tier of Mohawk’s outdoor venue with glee. Standout tracks like “Wish it (bite it)” and “Heart Like a Dog,” ones every cool girl should blast while walking to work, invited rancorous reactions from the forming crowd, even as the Texas heat continued to haze on and leave everyone slick and sedated. 

The headlining fourpiece – guitarist Sebastian Kinsler, lead vocalist and bassist Lydia Slocum, and drummer Jake Kelley, alongside touring guitarist Rob Potesta – causally stepped on stage and began their brief pre-set tuning and soundcheck around nine, and officially beginning to neigh (sing) around ten minutes later. With the male bandmates in casual t-shirts and trousers, frontwoman Slocum was the shiniest tooth in the stage’s mouth, decked out in a white ensemble adorned with music notes that matched her platinum blonde hairdo and pearly bass with glamour. “Freak,” feeble’s most beloved track from 2023 album Girl with Fish, sent the show off to the races with its sardonic lyrics delivered with deadpan nonchalance and explosive sound. 

Blue lights turned red as the band stumbled into the second song of the night, “Shady,” a poppy, melodic track that delivered heavier, thrashier sounds live compared to the studio version. feeble grinned at each other like they shared an inside joke as the crowd bathed in soundwaves, enjoying the sonic serenade. 

Alternating between tracks from bitknot, Girl with Fish, and the band’s first album, Hayday, it became clear to the audience that the band’s live rendition of their discography would follow a similar pattern – the heavier and more jagged, the better. Fans that enjoy their slower, more lullaby-like, catchy tunes, could have found themselves gearing up for disappointment, but the energy brought by both feeble and the rowdy crowd made it a livelier night than the shoegaze-y sound could’ve provided. 

After “Shady,” the band slipped into another hit, “Paces,” which boasts an upbeat tempo and repetitive lyrics that make for a great live track (and evoke audio homage a la Duster).  Slocum took a beat before Girl with Fish’s “Sweet” to greet the audience. “This venue is very awesome,” she thanked. “We’re very happy to be here.” Blown-out guitars and thundering beats trot the crowd along the set. 

“Chores,” a jangly piece from Hayday that reminds listeners to “do your chores,” in Slocum’s iconically saccharine sarcastic tone, played next, and in a wash of light blue lights, “Picture” followed, a soft bedroom-pop melody that also mashed on guitars from Kinsler and Potesta and had the crowd singing along to the repetition with glee. “Doorway” features synth mixing that’s louder and more vibrant live compared to the studio version, along with a more upbeat tempo, making it a great track to mark the middle of the show. At the same time, “Doorway” showcases feeble’s ability to transform repetition into hypnosis and suspense, where riffs or digital distortion thrum and thrive rather than burst. 

The bitknot wave continued to surge, where “Poison” (whose guitar riff will engrain itself in your head for days) collided with the electropop track “Call,” a cover by Find My Friends – Kinsler’s solo project – and “Rewind,” the matrix-y, dreamy standout soundbite. Moshing and movement persisted across the set, but particularly lit up during the soft yet grimy dribble that made up the sound of a bitknot run. 

“Tin Man” includes freaky little riffs and lyrics that would make Ethan Slater weep, and as the lights shifted from blues to pinks, the crowd roused from left to right in thrashing harmony. The “Dior” to “Cradle” run shifted from one melodic composition to another, all while the instrumentation continued to rock harder and dirtier than the last. Slocum’s soft, almost mocking vocals combined with the heavy, fuzzy guitars made for a deliciously devious mudbath of sound. 

The grungy contrast disappears during “Steamroller,” in which Slocum’s voice is just as punishing as the instrumentals. Lyrically pondering religion, the crowd sings along as she declares, “Wet bed sheets she bled from the pressure / Plastic Catholic priest watched from the dresser,” and every Southern, Catholic-raised audience member kneeled to praise feeble little horse for affirming their religious trauma. 

Crashing down into “DMT,” the end of both bitknot the album and the last track on the ‘bitknot’ tour, setlist couldn’t rip harder. This track is just as chaotic live as it is on the album, and it made for the perfect mosh ending to the hot and heady night. 

An encore of “Dog Song 2” was the crowd’s final chance to jump on the saddle into feeble’s daintily unstable world before the house lights rose. Brief, noisy, and final, the track marked a fuzzied, frenzied end to a biting night at Mohawk, somehow sweatier than the night began.