Nation of Language at Terminal West [Photos]

Earlier this month, Brooklyn trio Nation of Language took the stage at Terminal West here in Atlanta and delivered bombastic, captivating 16-song set to celebrate the release of their 2023 masterpiece, Strange Disciple. They ripped through their catalog staples, like “The Grey Commute” and “September Again,” while populating the setlist with cuts from their new digs, especially Paste favorites “Sightseer” and “Spare Me the Decision.”

Last fall, our editor Matt Mitchell spoke with Nation of Language for our September digital cover story. “Strange Disciple evokes a stirring maximalism through vignettes and a cloud of splashy, arresting opulence,” they wrote. “Album opener ‘Weak In Your Light’ follows a pulsing metronome of erotic, low-octave key turns—which allow for Ian Devaney to take his own vocals into these operatic, church-clearing ranges. “Stumbling Still” offers a tangible, muted pop tone bustles in conversation with a drum machine—only to tumble into a titanic, appetizing arrangement of malleable dance-floor brushstrokes. “Sole Obsession” is a strobe light wilting beneath the reign of delicacy, as synth blades swing outwards, Alex MacKay’s bass-lines throb like dancing veins and Devaney adopts a bravado of low bellowing—punctuating the track’s attempt to untangle the knots of infatuation.”

“It’s there that the album arrives at a grand proclamation: ‘Walk me home and walk away, too far along to operate. Don’t offer me this measured attention, end the cycle,’ Devaney sings. ‘I must stop limiting myself, you and your sensational soul, ornamentation and all—empty idol, strange disciple,'” Mitchell continued. “The most intimate spaces on Strange Disciple exist where yearning, overstimulation and foolishness greet one another—where the frustrations around the depraved potential of our desensitized culture and our volcanic crushes on beautiful people form a crossroads of interpersonal chaos.”

You can see pictures and portraits from Nation of Language’s set at Terminal West on June 12th, taken by Lindsay Thomaston, below.