Nevva at Mercury Lounge (photo by Kate Hoos)

 

Is Sunday Funday even a thing people say anymore? I don’t know, but I’m unabashedly a nerd so I’m going to roll with it and say this show definitely qualified as Sunday Funday action even if it makes me sound like a dad or a dork from a Progressive commercial. Either way, it was a nice end to a big week of shows for me (Gustaf, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The Mummies, and El Ten Eleven; pics from all shows are right here on FTA), the bow on top to complete the package. 

 

Tea Eater opened the show and they are the latest project of Tarra Thiessen of Sharkmuffin and Gustaf, this time seeing her return to the front person role. And speaking of Gustaf, guitarist Vram Kherlopian is also lending his skills to this project as well. With half the band made up of members of the Gustaf, of course there are some similarities but overall, the sound diverges pretty significantly from their main project. Thiessen plays 12 string guitar and sings in her natural voice with the pitch shifter she uses in Gustaf running simultaneously for a trippy dual vocal effect. The songs are more noise punk than post punk in terms of tone and tempo, with lots of fuzzy power chords and not much of the punchy syncopated riffs that are a hallmark of Gustaf. The lyrics are hilarious and often snotty, with sarcastic songs like “I’m Starting a Podcast,” and “Fuck the DMV,” paired along with a love song for butter. At the end of the set Thiessen yelled FUCK YOU WE’RE TEA EATER! for the perfect end to their raucous set. They have not recorded anything just yet, but here is hoping that is something that happens very soon in between their other touring commitments. 

 

Nevva came up next and I was very happy to be seeing them for the first time in several months. The perfect compliment to the irreverence of Teaeater, their own snark was on full display with songs like “Black Leggings,” “Sober Vegan, and my personal favorite “Boyfriend’s Band,” which I think deserves a place on the top 10 best punk songs ever written list. They debuted some new material too, a song called “Swamp Monster,” with this show being only the second time the band was performing it live. Before kicking it off lead singer Jenny Palumbo said “I think it’s good but we’ll see how it goes.” Spoiler alert that it went off swimmingly and I am definitely excited to hear even more new music from them and hope 2022 sees the band releasing a full length. 

 

 

Dropper closed out the night and before this show I admit I’d been unfamiliar with them. Indie with a healthy dose of 90s alt flavor and some shoe gaze in the mix too. Nice lead guitar work meshed in with smooth vocals and slinky bass lines to make for a more mellow closer to the night of snark from the two previous acts. I look forward to exploring more of their recorded output and getting to know their live set more. 

 

Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)

 

TEAEATER

 

NEVVA

 

DROPPER