Just about two months after releasing their stellar record Chalice in November of last year, Seattle duo Night Hikes made a live debut at the Tractor Tavern with support from SURETHING! and Juliette. The trio of bands purveyed an oddly fitting mix of heavy shoegaze, indie electronic, and dream pop to a healthy post-snow, weeknight crowd.

While I didn’t compile a formal list of favorite albums from 2019, Night Hikes’s Chalice would certainly be close to topping my list of Seattle releases. As Matthew Farrell and Olivia Godby swapped between a Gibson Les Paul Special and an array of synths, the dream pop duo produced a massive live sound while staying true to their smartly minimal compositions. Night Hikes sounds exceptional on a good sound system, and Thursday night was no different. Kicking off their set with Chalice’s stand-out tracks “Avila” and “Vera” near the front of the setlist, Godby and Farrell created a lush wall of sound on the massive Tractor PA — the wall of synth layers and shimmery guitar sustained with purpose through the 40-minute set that closed out with Chalice’s third single, “Belltown.”

Juliette took the middle set of the night, with a dynamic set of highly danceable electronic music. A solo project of multi-instrumentalist Scott Kulicke, Juliette’s stage presence was impressive for a one-man show. Surrounded by a small collection synths and electronics, Kulicke built tracks from scratch with a combination of sampling and live looping of synths, bass guitar, and Stratocaster. Somewhere between a Tycho-influenced DJ set and a one-man jam band, Juliette’s set certainly had the Tractor crowd moving.

And the first band of the night was SURETHING! — a three-piece shoegaze group comprised of drummer Eric Underwood and brothers Austin and Adrien Weale on guitar and bass, respectively.  Underwood and Austin previously played in Seattle’s premier “grub pop” band Grubby Sweetheart, and SURETHING! has picked up with similar energy. Fueled by Underwood’s distinctive drumming and the live guitar work of Austin (who also has several bass recording credits on Night Hikes’s Chalice), their minimal bedroom brand of recording translated well to the live set. Bordering on power-trio territory via layers of guitar looping, heavy distortion and phaser, and intricate bass and guitar interplay, their song “come up” was the standout of the set. It’s one of just two singles up on their bandcamp, which were recorded with assistance from former Grubby Sweetheart producer Peyton Levin and released last May.