In Horse Jumper of Love’s first album, frontman Dimitri Giannopoulos, bassist John Margaris and drummer Jamie Vadala-Doran revel in a classically teenage boy brand of angst and sleaze. According to Giannopoulos, the self-titled LP was born out of haphazard studio sessions full of heavy drinking; the result is a jumble of nihilistic lyrics and straggling hooks — almost indecipherable amid a haze of guitar fuzz — that’s kind of insufferable, yet perversely fun to lose oneself in.
Seven years and four albums later, Horse Jumper of Love has grown up (and gotten sober). In their 2024 release, “Disaster Trick,” the band is still exploring the theme of sadness but with a new sense of introspection and a sharpened, heavier sound. For their latest North American tour, the band brought along supporting bands Joyer and Truth Club, forming a trio of acts that fall on the sliding spectrum between indie rock, shoegaze and ambient music.
The three acts all explored how depression and malaise — as well as alluring, unreal dreams — manifest in the nighttime. Lyrics with striking imagery swirled around the darkened Blue Room, from white and black dogs in Joyer’s “Drive All Night” to patches of clover on a skull bed in Truth Club’s “Clover.” Banter in between songs brought moments of levity, though, with Joyer joking that the audience would end the night by voting a member out of their band and Truth Club speculating that the venue was not actually owned by Jack White, but by Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston.
Giannopoulos has said that Horse Jumper of Love constructed the album “Disaster Trick” from a series of anchoring images, which help ground Giannopoulos’ oblique lyrical style. The band opened their set with “Snow Angel,” which depicts a snow angel melting in the sun. The song draws inspiration from the poem “Snow” by Silver Jews frontman David Berman, whom Giannopoulos cites as a musical hero and sports a tattoo in honor of.
Though Horse Jumper of Love hails from Boston’s underground scene, they recorded “Disaster Trick” at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina. An array of artists from both cities feature on the album, from Squirrel Flower’s Ella Williams to Wednesday’s MJ Lenderman and Karly Hartzman. Though the guest stars weren’t present at the show, their influence shined through as Horse Jumper of Love traversed the album and performed new renditions of old hits like “DIRT” and “Orange Peeler.”
In the world of “Disaster Trick,” the tail end of young adulthood brings new hardships and plenty of regret. Yet, Giannopoulos and the rest of Horse Jumper of Love approach these topics with a newfound self-awareness, presenting a fascinating new turn in the band’s oeuvre.
