Rash Decision, Bitterman @ The Hobbit Pub

by Kate Hoos | May 24, 2022

Rash Decision at The Hobbit Pub (photo by Kate Hoos)

One of my favorite things in life is going to DIY shows (even if I have become “industry” by working in large venues now, cue sarcastic eye roll) and I especially love when I’m able to incorporate going to shows in other places when I’m traveling. No matter where you travel, if you know where to look, you’ll always find pockets of people putting on shows and coming together as a community to keep these scenes alive and almost always enter a welcoming space regardless of who you are. My love for DIY and exploring these communities is how I found myself staying in a small hotel with a friend and walking over to a show in Southampton, a port city on the south coast of England (which most Americans may know as the place where the Titanic launched from), and blending in with a crowd of like minded music fans and misfits to enjoy a late afternoon hardcore show.

Like many DIY shows I end up attending, I found out about this one because one of the members of Rash Decision, singer/guitarist Dave Decision, is in another band I’ve seen before and love, the X Files themed hardcore unit, F. Emasculata, and that’s as good a referral as any for me; I was happy to have this show line up with my planned trip to the UK so I could be on hand to support. Rash Decision hails from Cornwall and bills themselves as “noisemongers” and fastcore. That could not be a more apt description as the songs are all warp speed and I’d wager to say not a single one clocks in at more than 2 minutes in length, most offering pointed political commentary on the decaying society we find ourselves stumbling through on any given day. They were joined on the bill by Bitterman, who hail from Portsmouth, and lean more towards the post hardcore side of things.

I was also very pleasantly surprised that towards the end of RD’s set the crowd broke out not into a mosh pit, but into the “Rock The Boat” dance on the floor (done to the 1974 hit by The Hues Corporation), a staple of Irish weddings and parties, which as someone born and raised in the US, I had never witnessed in person before (or even heard of before Season 2 of Derry Girls). Though upon further research and according to this article, I realized that my original take may have been off because I found out that when this dance is done in the UK, it’s done to an entirely different song, “Oops Upside Your Head” by The Gap Band, while “Rock the Boat” is the version done in Ireland. (Though apparently the dance moves are the same in either place. I think. Forgive my American ignorance on this one please.) I think I’m the biggest fan of this third interpretation though and it was very delightful for me to witness and I couldn’t help but chuckle very heartily. I wish more American hardcore shows went like this because this was way more fun than dodging large men moshing and fearing for my personal safety (a reason I tend to miss more and more hardcore shows the older I get truth be told).

It was clear to me that this was a tight knit community of friends and I felt grateful to find a little space in it as a visitor, if even for a few hours. It reminded me of my youth in New Jersey in the late 90s, finding out about a show happening at a small space in another town on a weekend afternoon (though back then a VFW hall or an elementary school gym would have been the setting instead of a pub) where a few dozen punks and like minded misfits looking for their place would come out and join together to inhabite the chosen space and see each other, some good bands, and perhaps pick up some records and zines to enjoy at home until the next inevitable time we all met up at another show.

The feeling I had back then at shows as a kid is something I don’t always feel all the time now, even though I’m at shows for work or this blog on average 25 nights a month. It is a special and unique feeling, wholly unlike what I feel at the myriad shows and venues I work at and/or frequent in NYC regularly and only seems to return for me when I go to shows like this in small communities and in places that aren’t located in the 5 boroughs. And that’s not to knock NYC or the amazing gift of live music anywhere, any time I want it, every night of the week, or the vibrant underground music scenes that exist here. I love having access to all of that, but there’s also no denying that there’s no comparison to the magic of being able to be part of these communities—even if it’s just as a visitor passing through—and getting to enter into these little pockets of punks and weirdos existing outside of urban environments and thriving on their own terms. No comparison at all.

Have DIY will travel, now and forever!

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

BITTERMAN

RASH DECISION

The Linda Lindas, Ratas En Zelo @ Mercury Lounge

by Kate Hoos | May 2, 2022

The Linda Lindas (photo by Kate Hoos)

The Linda Lindas wrapped up their run in NYC opening for Jawbreaker (see pics from night one) with their own headline gig on the afternoon of Sunday 5/1. I loved them when I saw them open for Jawbreaker, and was very excited to see that they were doing their own headline gig in New York before they went back home, but this was unfortunately a show I was going to have to miss because I had to work—sometimes being an adult is full of disappointment and missing out shows you’d really rather be at!

But then at the very last minute luck intervened and my boss called me to tell me my shift was cancelled right as I was about to head out the door, which meant I was instead free to head over to Mercury Lounge to enjoy the show, and I would still be getting paid for the day for the inconvenience/last minute notice. Punk rock for the double win! With support from one of my favorite local bands, Ratas En Zelo, I knew I had absolutely gotten a very good stroke of luck to get to be there.

The show featured an audience of all ages—from very young fans with their parents to members of Brooklyn punk bands to seasoned show veterans like me—and kicked off promptly at 5:30 with an already packed room ready to rock out. Ratas En Zelo played a set of bouncy accordion fueled punk and kept the crowd moving for their entire set. Their music is fun and infectious, with lyrics that are 99% sung in Spanish and pack a political punch; it was the perfect primer for The Linda Lindas. I’ve seen them several times over the last few years, but not since before the pandemic, so it was wonderful getting to catch up on what they’ve been doing.

Ratas En Zelo

The Linda Lindas started their set at 6:30, arriving on stage in outfits that were hand customized by guitarist Bela Salazar, as the X-Ray Spex classic “Germfree Adolescence” played over the sound system for their entrance music. The crowd cheered to greet them and several of the youngest spectators had made their way up front on the edge of the stage, with the band saying “kids to the front!” (as a play on the Bikini Kill classic phrase “girls to the front!”) to make sure any stragglers could get up front if they wanted to. With everyone situated and ready to go, the band launched into a 17 song set of pop punk/riot grrrl inspired tunes that started off with a cover of The Blue Hearts “Linda Linda,” the song that the band got their name from.

From there they played all of the songs on their debut album, Growing Up, as well as the four songs from their 2020 self titled EP, a cover of The Go Go’s “Tonite,” and the single “Claudia Kishi.” This being their own headline gig meant they could play a longer set than what they did during the Jawbreaker shows (11 songs per night), much to the delight of the fans who joyously bopped and danced, singing along to every song. They again concluded the set with their viral hit, “Racist, Sexist Boy,” which met with the most cheers of the evening. Afterwards they took selfies with the crowd from stage before jumping to the floor and mingling for more pictures and autographs.

Their wonderfully endearing, youthful stage banter was in full effect as well, asking the audience about school, lamenting about homework before “Magic” “is time even real? If I turn in homework a week late does it even matter?” and talking about how excited they were to be in New York. They also spoke about their cats several times throughout, with Bela saying her cats were “sad they can’t be here but they send their warm regards” before going on to thank Ratas En Zelo for playing and saying there was “no bad blood between the rats and the cats.”

The Linda Lindas

Concluding their shows here, they filmed an episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday and will return to LA on Tuesday—just in time to be back to school on Wednesday—because after all, high school waits for no one, not even four emerging rock stars. The band will finish their school year before heading out for several summer and fall dates that have been announced, including opening dates for Japanese Breakfast as well as festivals like Newport Folk and When We Were Young. They will next return to the East Coast for a show in Philadelphia on 7/21 at The Foundry, and then to NYC in October to open for Yeah Yeah Yeahs on 10/1 at Forest Hills Stadium.

I’m glad luck intervened so I could be at this show, the exuberant and youthful blast of fun and good vibes was exactly what I needed to remind me why I’m still going to shows and playing in bands myself after so many years. Indeed, we are all lucky to witness this talented young group on their rise.

The Linda Lindas setlist: Linda Linda (Blue Hearts cover), Claudia Kishi, Monica, Magic, Fine, Never Say Never, No Clue, Missing You, Talking To Myself, Remember, Nino, Why, Cuántas Veces, Growing Up, Tonite (Go Go’s cover), Oh!, Racist Sexist Boy

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

RATAS EN ZELO

THE LINDA LINDAS

Dropper, Nevva, Tea Eater @ Mercury Lounge

by Kate Hoos | Apr 30, 2022

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

Jawbreaker, The Linda Lindas, Worriers @ Irving Plaza

by Kate Hoos | Apr 28, 2022

Jawbreaker at Irving Plaza (photo by Kate Hoos)

Jawbreaker is currently on tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their final album, Dear You, released in September 1995 (the tour was delayed by two years because of you-know-what), and they kicked off the first of four sold out shows in New York last night, the room packed with devoted fans of all ages. And like every single person in that room, Jawbreaker is a band that has meant so much to me over the years, one that I have spent countless hours listening to. I’m right in that weird nebulous “old enough to have been listening to them in the 90s” but “a shade too young to have seen them in the 90s” age range, so the reunion tours that they have done over the last several years have been so wonderful for all the fans my age who just missed them when we were kids, and those younger than that. I’d seen them twice before in 2019 and both times were great, but something about this one just hit different; it turned out to be a very emotional and magical evening for me.

Unlike Jawbreaker fans who are older than me (I’m 41 so those in their mid to late 40s and up), Dear You was my first exposure to the band. I don’t have a cool “I saw them in a DIY space in 91!” story, but I do have a lot of strong and wonderful memories of finding myself as a kid and young adult to their music. The first time I heard them was sometime in 1996 when I was 15 years old, watching 120 Minutes when the video for “Fireman” came on. I immediately loved what I was hearing, so I wrote down the band and album name on a piece of paper and started bugging my mom to take me to the record store so I could find the CD. I had no idea then that that purchase would change so much for me and become a musical cornerstone in my life or that I’d still be listening—and sometimes crying along—to this band 26 years down the line.

Up until that point I was more of a grunge and alt-head, as one was in those days if you were 15 and into rock music, but Dear You showed me that much more nuance was possible with the rock format, and it also opened up a door into the world of even more underground bands to explore via liner notes, zines and nascent music websites when I would get the irregular opportunity to get internet access. (This door had been cracked open by Nirvana and Green Day, but bands like Jawbreaker, Sleater-Kinney and Bikini Kill kicked it off the hinges.)

I had started playing drums around the time I discovered Jawbreaker too, and I remember working so hard to learn the drum parts on that album in particular, because they weren’t easy for newbie, and I felt so accomplished every time I mastered a song. I also had a (terrible) zine in high school, each issue came complete with a special “Jawbreaker page” where I would gush about the band and make collages of pictures I was able to find in bigger magazines or if I’d managed to sneak some internet time at school.

Clearly I have a lot of emotions and memories tied up in this band, and I could keep going with a lot more anecdotes, but suffice it to say, being able to see Jawbreaker play the entire album all these years later was very special to me. Before the show I kept away from setlists online so I would be surprised on what other material they were including, but had been wondering if they would play the album in order or not, and had been expecting that. So when they took the stage I was prepared to hear the opening notes of “Save Your Generation,” but it turned out they mixed things up to keep people guessing throughout the night. Instead they started off with “I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both,” before heading into “Chemistry” and then dipping completely out of the album to play another big favorite, “The Boat Dreams from the Hill,” from 1994’s 24 Hour Revenge Therapy.

The fans didn’t seem to mind what the order was as long as they got to hear the songs they know and love so much and while I do generally like to hear full albums played in order, in the end I just wanted to hear those songs and sing my heart out so I was fine with whatever way they wanted to structure the setlist. I found myself getting particularly emotional during “Chemistry,” and even teared up for a minute—not because it’s one of their overly emotional songs—but rather because of my own memories of bashing away on my crappy starter drumkit in my parent’s basement and pushing myself to get it right, trying to perfectly match what was on the album; it turned out to be one of the first songs I was really able to execute with any kind of skill.

They continued with more songs from Dear You, hitting the entirety of the album except for “Lurker II: Dark Son of Night” (which was another drumming favorite from my youth, though I suspect the omission had more to do with the lyrical content not aging well, as they don’t appear to have been playing it at all on the tour) and “Unlisted,” (which was cut after they ran out of time). Every few songs they would throw in things from other albums, mostly from 24, but they also included the intense and broody “Parabola” from Bivouac near the end of the set.

Frontman Blake Schwarzenbach had plenty of witty stage banter, telling opening comedian Chris Gethard “watch out Gethard!” Just before kicking into “Basilica,” he quipped that the “first wave of weed just drifted to the stage and good timing my friend because things are about to get dark and scary. You probably thought ‘they’re gonna go for Boxcar’ but oooooh nooo.” Keeping with the dark vibe, they followed that with “Jet Black,” the crowd cheering at the opening sample from Annie Hall: “I tell you this because as an artist I think you’ll understand…”

Several songs later “Boxcar” did make its appearance much to the delight of everyone in the room and the crowd sang along with wild abandon. In fact the audience sang along to every single song, never missing a beat or a word along the way. And when the end of the set arrived, yells and cheers for an encore rang out, people not seeming to believe the show was over for several minutes after the band left the stage. (They ran out of time before the sound curfew and had to cut two songs from the original setlist, “Unlisted” and “Kiss The Bottle.”)

I was also very happy after the set to get a few moments to speak to drummer Adam Pfahler and to tell him how much seeing him play meant to me, that I had indeed learned to play drums largely by playing along to this album. It was nice to be able to thank him for teaching me even when he didn’t know he was. He was kind and gracious with me and with several other fans he was interacting with after the show too.

And as if seeing Jawbreaker wasn’t already great, they have had some incredible openers all throughout this tour, and the NYC audience was treated to sets by Worriers and The Linda Lindas for night one (and for night two;  Shellshag will replace Worriers for nights three and four). I was particularly struck by this because many of the other openers were contemporaries of the band in the 90s (Jawbox, Team Dresch, Samiam, Descendents), but these are two bands that can draw a direct line back to the inspiration of Jawbreaker. Particularly Worriers, who have a lot of that classic 90s emo/pop punk sound to them, so I felt it was very fitting and exciting to have these bands on the show for a full circle moment—Gen X to Millennial to Gen Z bands—keeping the punk cycle of life going.

Worriers

Worriers’ singer/guitarist Lauren Denitzio remarked that the band had put out a full length in 2020 “which sounds like a joke but it’s real,” going on to say that this was their first hometown show since the album release and that if you had told them their first hometown show back would be with Jawbreaker they’d have called you “out of your fucking mind.”  This was obviously a show that meant just as much to the opening bands as it did to the fans.

The Linda Lindas

I was over the moon to get to see The Linda Lindas who have been receiving a lot of attention in the last year or so, every bit of it well deserved. This was their first show in New York and in fact their first show outside of California. They powered through a set of 11 super catchy pop punk/riot grrrl inspired songs, and had plenty of charming and endearing stage banter, talking about how they were so excited to be in New York for the first time and that “Adam said his uncle once took him to New York and it changed his life. Now Jawbreaker are the uncles changing lives.”

Singer/guitarist Lucia also recounted that the band was doing their homework that morning before the show and asked the audience at one point “who has school tomorrow?” before quickly amending to, “I mean work,” when she realized she was speaking to a room of people a lot older than the band. The whole audience  was enraptured with their performance which they concluding with the viral hit “Racist, Sexist Boy,” the song being met with elated cheers from the audience. I hope that awful boy is somewhere eating his words right now (and more importantly learning to better himself), while these young super stars continue on their rise.

This was a special night for so many, both onstage and those in the audience. Hearing (almost) all of the songs from Dear You played live was something I waited over two decades for, so I will not soon forget it or how it made me feel. Listening to that album always has and always will feel like coming home, seeing/hearing the songs played live after all this time felt even better than that.

Jawbreaker setlist: I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both, Chemistry, The Boat Dreams from the Hill, Save Your Generation, Fireman, Basilica, Jet Black, Condition Oakland, Million, Bad Scene Everyone’s Fault, Boxcar, Oyster, Sluttering (May 4th), Parabola, Accident Prone, Want

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

CHRIS GETHARD

WORRIERS

LINDA LINDAS

JAWBREAKER