show reviews

Necro Hippies (L to R: Candice, Roommate, Josh Eaton and Phil)

august 29th 2009
gun outfit/necro hippies/ixnay

the only thing i love better than a basement show is one in the living room because there's always a lamp or some christmas lights shining around the band that somehow make the music sound better. i missed ixnay cuz i was late which is a damn shame because they are the only all-girl band in new orleans' punk scene.

necro hippies have been getting a really good crowd lately which totally worked in gun outfit's favor cuz the room was pretty packed. Candice, the guitarist in Necro Hippies set up the whole show. I have so much respect for that girl! I'm pretty sure she sets up all of Necro Hippie's shows and she helps out so much with No More Fiction shows which put on queer/girl shows in New Orleans. She's a flyer-making machine! Candice reminds me of the ladies of the old school like Alice Bag or Toni Young, this young black lady who was part of the dc hardcore scene in the 80s and played bass in bands like Red C and Peer Pressure. She's like this lady, totally holding it down with all these guys, writing songs, playing guitar, setting up shows, coordinating shit, getting shit done. Candice just started doing shows under the name Look Ma, No Bra! and she's putting on really good shows for bands who come through New Orleans.

Oh, that just reminded me--to all the New Orleans punks: get used to paying a couple bucks for shows PLEASE! Punks all over the country: if you go to a show and you see a band from out of town, you should be prepared to put down just a couple bucks at least! If it's local bands, that's one thing, but if you can pay for beer, you can give the band $1 if that's all you have. Ok, I'm done.

I had no idea what Gun Outfit sounded like before I saw them and I knew little about them except that they are from Olympia, Washington. i liked them and thought it was funny that a lot of the folks that were dancing to necro hippies were sitting down for gun outfit. you can't mosh to gun outfit, it's true. I have to be honest and say that I like gun outfit because they sound old, like they're from 15 years ago. It's just that I've been feeling so nostalgic and missing pieces of the past and then gun outfit plays and it's just exactly what I wanted to hear that night. And to top it off, the crowd was pretty cool. Maybe it's because candice writes "macho punks fuck off" on all her flyers. It keeps the fools at bay.

september 4 2009
mutating meltdown/necro hippies/kicktease

the show was originally supposed to be at Nowe Miasto, this warehouse in mid-city, but Mutating Meltdown were driving all the way from Asheville and running late so we thought we'd have to cancel it, but then the saturn bar came through for us at the last minute. this was No More Fiction's 3rd show ever and we were really looking forward to it. we did a lot of work trying to get the flyers to spots that don't normally get flyered for punk shows, like the LGTB center. needless to say we were bummed during that couple of hours before a new spot was found. but everything always works out in the end, right? i hadn't been to a show at saturn bar yet, so i was kind of glad to have the chance to check it out.

kicktease started things off that night. they're an all-girl rock n roll trio from baton rouge. when you watch them, you can feel that they're a new band even though they're pretty tight. this black girl who reminded me of tina turner was the singer. i told her so after the show and she took it kinda weird and then i thought about it later and figured maybe she thought i meant "what's love got to do with it" tina instead of "river deep mountain high" tina which is actually what i meant. but whatever. she was a really good front person. she's got an amazing voice, and the guitarist is super solid. she was this talk, thin, dark-skinned black girl with a long-ass weave and glasses. the way she was playing made it all seem pretty effortless. i mean, even though it's the year 2009, it just ain't somethin you see every day and you could tell a lot of people were impressed. my friend said he thought they sounded "produced" even though they were live. i think it's cuz they really are more of a rock n roll band than a punk band because i believe they were playing through necro hippies equipment anyway. overally, i'm really curious to see how they change as they keep playing.

necro hippies brought their posse, as usual, and mutating meltdown showed up tour-weary but delivered musically. watching them, i got re-inspired. mutating meltdown is the kind of band that i was searching high & low for when i was about 18 years old. it's the kind of stuff i get excited about more than any other kind of punk. weird girl bands like scissor girls, quixotic, essential logic, erase errata, subtonix. i always related to those kinds of bands so much in terms of their music, image and general aesthetic. so obviously, i was really into mutating meltdown and it felt good to cross paths with the two ladies in the band who i first met when they were playing in finally punk, another one to add to the list above. Mutating Meltdown's 7" is out on a label called M'Lady Records, started by a guy who I started my first band ever with in DC. His name is Brett Lyman and he puts out good stuff so check it out.