Hyd Showcases Amazing New Music in Intimate Performance at Sleeping Village
Photos and review by Cara Col
This past Thursday, performance artist and musician Hyd performed at Sleeping Village to an intimate crowd. Conversations flowed freely among attendees, many of whom seemed to recognize each other upon arrival. I felt myself getting swept up by this same feeling and began striking up conversation.
“I really love this new album,” one attendee mentioned to me, referring to Hyd’s sophomore album Hold On To Me Infinity, released just last week.
Despite the freshness of the album, that sentiment echoed throughout the room; the audience seemed to know every song by heart. The crowd’s familiarity with the music and one another serves as a testament to the dedicated community Hyd’s art has cultivated. By the end of the night, the line between artist and audience felt almost nonexistent.
Brittany Bindrim opened the night, a longtime staple of Chicago’s independent music scene whose years of experience were evident from the moment she stepped onstage. Accompanied by a guitarist, Bindrim delivered a high-energy set that fused industrial metal textures and darkwave beats with catchy hooks. She headbanged and spun across the stage as harsh guitar chords collided with dark synth soundscapes. Poetic and deeply emotional lyrics gave weight to every chord and melody. Her performance successfully energized the room, while establishing the emotional depth that carried through the rest of the evening.
Then, Hyd emerged wearing knee-high black boots and a sparkly leotard adorned with a dramatic bow cascading behind them. Bathed in red stage lighting and surrounded by scattered flowers, they softly shifted around the stage, hitting every synthy beat of “Trust,” a song off their debut album CLEARING. Their vocals were deep and raspy, soft and melodic as the chorus came. Whether singing or slipping seamlessly into fast rhymes in whispers, Hyd danced continuously across the stage, fully embodying each song. Despite the theatrical presentation, there was nothing distant about their presence.
Throughout the set, Hyd frequently paused to speak with attendees, creating moments that felt more like conversations between friends. They recognized familiar faces in the crowd and shared that both their mother and brother were in attendance, reinforcing the familial atmosphere that permeated.
After playing a couple more songs off their debut album and singles like “Oil + Honey” and “Skin 2 Skin,” Hyd then began to play some of their new songs. Before performing “PhysicalStuff,” Hyd offered one of the evening’s most poignant introductions. They explained that the song emerged from experiences with loss and grief; the strange reality of embodying life physically while grappling with memories of someone or something that is no longer physical.
“What do I do when that which is no longer embodied comes through Prince songs, or a licorice tea bag?” Hyd shared. “I learned how to live life with a body.”
It was a thoughtful reflection that illuminated the themes running through their work. Across the set, songs dealt with remembrance, relationships, and the challenge of processing our emotions through synthpop beats and catchy hooks.
For the rest of the night, Hyd performed clear fan favorites from the new album such as “Angel,” “Makeover,” and “Make Me Believe,” before closing out the night with an energetic performance of “Shine It.”
At Sleeping Village, Hyd delivered a showcase of their latest material and created a space where everyone felt united by music that confronts grief, memory, and connection with remarkable honesty. In a venue like Sleeping Village, the evening became a reminder that some of the most powerful performances are those that erase the distance between performers and audience entirely.
Hyd came into the public limelight as a performance artist for the experimental music project QT, collaborating with the late Scottish producer SOPHIE and the British producer A.G. Cook. Now, a little over ten years later, Hyd has established their own unique sound and philosophy for live performance.
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Gallery:
Links:
Hyd:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hyd.earth/
Brittany Bindrim:
Official: https://brittanybindrim.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brittanybindrim/
Sleeping Village:
Official: https://sleeping-village.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sleepingvillagechicago/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sl33pingvillag3/
