Hey, this is exciting! Somewhere on this planet, brief glimmers of everyday life are starting to return to what they were before the pandemic hit! We’re looking at a near future where an indie rock band can play a show! Not a drive-in show, either! Just a regular show! Amazing!

The Beths, the great New Zealand power-pop quartet, are getting ready to release their sophomore LP Jump Rope Gazers next months. We’ve posted a few early singles — “Dying To Believe,” “I’m Not Getting Excited,” and “Out Of Sight” — and all of them slap. (Let’s not pay too much attention to the fact that all three song titles seem weirdly appropriate for this situation. Let’s keep it moving.)

On Instagram yesterday, frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes announced that the band will play “a gig” in the band’s Auckland hometown a day after they release the LP. They’re even playing an indoor venue, a club called the Powerstation.

Of course, this could easily end up getting cancelled. New Zealand quickly instituted contact tracing and mandatory quarantine when the pandemic arrived, and the country has been praised as one of the great global success stories in dealing with the virus. It’ll be a long time before the rest of us catch up with them, if we do. And even with all that success, NPR reports that the country reported two new COVID-19 cases yesterday. Still, somewhere out there, people will probably get to experience standing around in a dark room, drinking beer, and watching other people play new rock songs. That’s cause for celebration.