Chicago’s Airiel were one of the acts who kept the shoegaze flag waving in the fallow years for the genre, forming in the late ’90s and making their name with the Winks & Kisses series of EPs in the early aughts, leading up to their 2007 debut album The Battle Of Sealand and its follow-up a decade later, 2017’s Molten Young Lovers. Hardly prolific, but remember these were the years when pretty much every band from the original scene had gone to ground and the only audience were die-hards scattered around the world; hardly legion, and certainly made for tough economics.

So while I can’t say for sure, I feel like touring was sporadic and domestic making their visit to Toronto last Winter an unexpected surprise… that I couldn’t attend because of scheduling. The occasion, as it turned out, was to promote the 20th anniversary of their Winks & Kisses EP series, which got a fancy box set reissue later that year.

Given the singular circumstances of that tour, I figure that was my only chance to see them come and gone, but I guess the trickle-down effect of the shoegaze revival is real – they’re back on the road this month with Blushing and are getting the most of their work visas with another visit to Toronto – and this time I’ll be there. The occasion for this tour is another reissue – this time, Molten Young Lovers is getting a third vinyl pressing. It’s due out on July 1, so I can’t say if there’ll be any for sale in person, but it’s a good excuse to post one of the band’s only official music videos.