Local Band Local Beer: March 29, 2018
at The Pour House, Raleigh
Featured Bands:
JooseLord Magnus & Brassious Monk
Tre’ Mars & The Kids Downtown
Pie Face Girls
After having my usual share of car troubles that accompany driving a 1971 Volkswagen, I rolled up to the Pour House at 8:45, too late to expect street parking for a 9:00 show. But against all odds, I managed to find an empty space on the corner. It would prove to be my lucky night, after all. I paid the $5 cover at the door and made my way inside.
JooseLord Magnus & Brassious Monk opened the night, filling in for Zensofly, who had been forced to cancel due to illness. JooseLord is intense. I didn’t have time to research them prior to the show, as they were a last-minute substitution, but I really loved everything I heard from them. The crowd did too. Playing with local trip-hop artist Brassious Monk, it was an on-stage collaboration of the two.
JooseLord played to the predominantly white crowd, who lost their minds to a song where the refrain is “proud N*@£#%s!” He went on to lead the crowd in a “FUCK DONALD TRUMP” chant, telling everyone to put their middle fingers in the sky. “If you don’t like my music, fuck you too” he shouted into the mic. I’ve never heard a crowd screaming “FUCK YOU” with such joy. The whole set felt like an act of defiance.
JooseLord and Monk will be sharing the stage again in a couple of weeks at Motorco for JooseLord’s album release show on Friday the 13th of April. “If you don’t wanna come, then fuck you,” he said.
Tre’ Mars & The Kids Downtown closed with a cover of B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa”. Their sound is a smooth jazz & rap fusion. I dig it. A Raleigh-based hip-hop act, Tre’ Mars & The Kids downtown have been actively producing music since 2012. During the Tre’Mars however, I was admittedly a bit distracted: I ran into an old friend who informed me that they’re moving to San Francisco in June. I met a girl who was very lovely indeed. We struck up a fast friendship over a shared hatred for penises. I ran into another friend who has been ignoring me since Thanksgiving. Thursday nights at The Pour House are probably the weirdest occasions to run into everybody you know.
Pie Face Girls was the last act to perform. After their first song, PFG stopped the show to kneel, protesting police brutality, and to talk about gun violence. And people listened. PFG cited several statistics about the frequency of gun violence in America, as well as the abhorrent lack of charges against police officers involved in fatal shootings of minorities.
A fierce force in local punk, they are the only band I’ve seen that has a mosh pit going non-stop throughout their entire set. The moshpit on this particular night began in the center of the room and slowly enveloped the front row. A dude in the crowd took off his jacket and whipped it around in the air. There was, however, only one crowd surfer during the set. At the end of the set, the drummer thanked everyone for missing Ru Paul’s Drag Race to come to the show.
PFG rocks. Hard.
durhambeat 