Your Underdog Show of the Week: Perfect Pussy, Joanna Gruesome and More at Shea Stadium
The word “underdog” is being used relatively loosely here, as Perfect Pussy‘s full-throttled whirl of noise has been selling out shows at rapid pace since the release of Say Yes to Love this spring. Still, singer-screamer-force-of-nature Meredith Graves has built a reputation for giving it all’s she’s got, every time. Bets are on for tonight: she’ll be at the center of the storm, an animated reminder that it’s a Tuesday in late August, you’re in a cramped Brooklyn loft and living the stuff thousands of kids in less-populated areas of the Midwest dream about. You’re having a moment.
Joining the party are like-minded Welsh millennials Joanna Gruesome, whose melody-leaning punk is cut from the Slumberland tradition, where their 2013 debut, Weird Sister, originates, but also a generation who deadpans naming their band “Joanna Gruesome” in tribute to, I assume, a certain elfish songstress. The result flicks from rough and tumble to sweet and twee-bent, controlled by frontwoman Alanna McArdle’s command. Eyewitness accounts recall shows typically end in free-for-all form with three guitarists in the crowd, just like concerts end in the movies.
Together with Perfect P. and Joanna G., Northampton’s Potty Mouth forms a trifecta of youth-fueled, female-led noise-punk; Bobby Burg’s hyper-catchy pop project Love of Everything will ease you into the chaos. All this for $10! (Tickets are technically sold out, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.)
Follow Lauren Beck on Twitter @heylaurenbeck.