There’s something about the stage presence of Diet Cig’s Alex Luciano that earns its way into your inner being. As she throws herself from opposite ends of the stage, trailing her guitar and assuring everything she’s sharing is the kind of stuff that people spit and handshake-truce over, she also lends a great deal of confidence. The same spark can be said about the other three members of the tour. As members of Diet Cig and PWR BTTM arrived at Berklee’s Café 939 earlier this month, they immediately threw their arms up and started dancing. I’m not sure that it would have even mattered if there was music playing or not—these people radiate a certain positivity. Their enthusiasm to share their perspective might prove the New Paltz, N.Y. pals to be one of the most powerful D.I.Y. tours of the year.
“Look what I’ve got in store for tonight!” PWR BTTM’s Ben Hopkins quickly proclaimed as he jubilantly pulled open a bag of fake bananas, glitter and yarn. Hopkins and Liv Bruce of PWR BTTM kindle up camaraderie the minute they start speaking. You can’t help but sink into their wide smiles and quick flattery. “O gurrrl,” Bruce would say as he leaned back his head in laughter and shared his excitement for the outfits Hopkins and himself planned to wear for the show. Bruce and Hopkins dress in drag for each show, and they go all out. The amount of glitter Hopkins applied to his scalp would probably take a couple years to clear.
The two are as quick to discuss their wardrobe as they are to discuss identity. Making light of their own queer identity on stage and off, they get everyone laughing at the show and leave as the welcome center of attention.
“When you’re a straight teenage boy, there’s a million options of people that you can craft yourself in relation to. I have a distinct memory of a time when I was a kid, realizing that I was queer and what that meant, and one of the first things that I thought was, ‘how is my dream of music going to work?’” Bruce took breath to calm and collect his thoughts, “A big part of my motivation for this project is that I have so much fucking fun, but I really just want some queer ten-year-old to realize, ‘Oh, I don’t have to pick between being queer and liking music’ because there are some musicians that I’ve met who kind of fly under the radar. They’ll play in a band that isn’t visibly queer, which is fine. There are a lot of bands who won’t use gender pronouns to make a song general for everyone, but if I was a twelve-year-old getting with Rivers Cuomo singing about half Japanese girls, then some straight dude can deal with listening to me singing about wanting a boy.”
Tracing the main players of the music industry with Bruce and Hopkins, the need for diversity had never become more clear. Between the three of us, we really couldn’t round up more than a handful of current bands whom play in drag. As the first solid tour in which the two toured as PWR BTTM, they were anxious to create the discussion.
“I want to go to Mobile, Alabama. I want to go to every weird place that we’ve never been. I want to play a show for a kid that can finally slather shit on their face, go and have a fun time, and not feel harassed about it. I just want to go and play for that kid, “Hopkins said.
Diet Cig’s Luciano and Noah Bowman awe and applaud the confidence and hilarity that ooze out of PWR BTTM’s performance. “They’re half music, half stand up comedy. They’re incredible!” Luciano said, but Diet Cig stirs up just as important of a conversation.
Songs like, “Harvard” measure a experience that Luciano had with boy in high school. The 19-year-old holds her honesty with unapologetic giddiness—something that’s purely unique and in a category of its own.
Although Luciano and Bowman pound out something of a genius pop punk evolution, they aren’t immune to the obsession of labeling. When conversing about desired changes within the music industry, Luciano was quick to speak. “Stop using women as your gimmick. Women are also just musicians. It’s a weird, because you don’t want to be put in a weird category for your gender, but you also want people to know, ‘I am a girl and I am doing this’ and it’s hard because you want to scream from the heavens, ‘I’m a girl and I’m awesome’. It’s just a weird line to straddle, owning it and not making it all about it,” Luciano said.
Hesitant to emphasize gender, Luciano makes a statement in her own right, performing with unapologetic truth and pride. But before any conversation topic of the night became too serious, PWR BTTMS’s Hopkins jumped in. “C’mon guys, we gotta take a hot van pick!” As the four of them piled on each other with wide smiles, the power of their spit-filled handshake set in.