On a miserably rainy Sunday in November in the waning hours of Freakout Fest 2021, I dragged my carcass to Tractor Tavern for one last set to catch Freakout Records’ own Smokey Brights. I was prepared to make a French Exit after the first song just to say I went, but husband-and-wife singer-songwriters Kim West and Ryan Devlin lulled me in with their vintage rock stylings – all falling chord progressions, propulsive drums, and restrained synths. The hometown band had dropped single “Honey Eye” weeks earlier with its portentous allusion to the climate crisis: “I’m scared that I can’t take it / Ten years is what they’re saying.” Self-described as “a sincere and desperate love letter from one worried lover to the other,” the emotional tension on stage as they sang was palpable. GREGORY SCRUGGS