Saturday felt like the first day of spring with its warm air and peeping sun through the clouds. People were beginning to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day obscenely early, medical ed and walking down Harvard Ave. towards Great Scott was more difficult than planned. All of this fight led to a show with such an eclectic and talented bill of Swearin’, recipe troche Potty Mouth, California X, Yale, MA, and Direct Effect that there was no way it wouldn’t sell out. Swearin’ hadn’t played in Boston for about two years, and the last time they passed through, they played a house show with only a demo to show for their street cred. Potty Mouth were playing their last Boston show with their lead guitarist Phoebe Harris who announced in a wonderful Impose piece that she would be pursuing her passions as a visual artist full time and stepping back from the band. Ali Donohue of Fleabite, Tomboy, and Springsteen (did I miss a band there over-achiever?) will be taking her place starting with their post-SXSW tour.
Direct Effect were an addition to the lineup shortly before Saturday. They hail from Florida, and to be honest, I hadn’t listened to them before the show. I had no idea what I was in for. With a bill as diverse as this evening’s, they could have sounded like anything, and it would have worked. Luckily they were a perfect specimen of hardcore melodic punk. They thanked Swearin’ for letting them “hop on this party,” and what a party this evening would be.
Although Yale, MA is well known in their local scene of Boston, and I have heard their music and name several times, this was my first chance to see them live. They had the perfect amount of energy: not over-bearing but enough to keep the crowd interested. Yale, MA played their personal brand of pop with the energy of a hardcore band. There were one or two slip-ups in their set that the band quickly recovered from to a sold out crowd that at this point was all filed into Great Scott.
New Found Glory was blasting over the PA as California X setup for what was sure to be one of the heaviest performances of the evening. Every time Cali X plays, their hair flips are just as mind-blowing as their fuzzed out heavy riffs. I told their bassist Dan Jones at the end of the night that if he was wearing a similar outfit to Abby Weems of Potty Mouth, I wouldn’t be able to tell who was who in the photos. Cali X is the best hair band to have ever existed, including their drummer Coal who sports a perfectly shaved head. On top of the hair action, the dudes brought a bit of funky tip toe dance moves while their guitars toed the line between dueling shreds from Lemmy and Zack and complementary melodies. If you haven’t seen California X live, shame on you and make sure you bring that earplug game.
It was a bittersweet evening for anyone who is a huge Potty Mouth fan. This show would be the last that Phoebe Harris would play guitar with the band. I’ve said this over and over again, but I’m extremely proud of everything Potty Mouth has accomplished over the last few years of existence. They played a few new songs at Great Scott including “Car,” “Twisted,” “Truman Show” and “First Thing.” Listening to Abby Weems’ lyrics in these compared to older tracks and hearing the deep levels of musicianship from Ally Einbinder, Victoria Mandanas, and Phoebe Harris, they’re on some next level shit. Unpopular opinion time: I was never a huge Green Day fan, only a casual one, but their new songs remind me of the older Green Day catalog that is highly regarded as genius, every day punk. I see Potty Mouth following this line (not the rock n’ roll musical one) and coming out with a truly amazing sophomoric effort.
All seriousness aside, the four women of Potty Mouth always have a ton of fun on stage. Abby tried multiple times to split her pants while jumping, because she’s always wanted that to happen on stage. After a last attempt at this, Potty Mouth moved into the final song of their set, “The Better End.” For those wondering, no I didn’t cry while Phoebe performed this for the last time at Great Scott. I wish her all the luck with her art and illustrations.
Throughout the night, I got the impression that most of the crowd was strictly there to see Swearin’. With a bill like Saturday’s, I’m not sure what their deal was all about. All five bands are excellent, and it hurt a bit to watch the crowd barely move during the first four. I started to forgive them as Swearin’ started right up with two songs in a row: “1” and “Here to Hear” off their self-titled debut from 2012. The audience had been waiting two years to hear these songs presented to them in person, and they screamed the words back to the band with every breath.
Allison Crutchfield swayed with a bit of jaunty dance moves while Kyle Gilbride brought his intense energy mouth to microphone. Jeff Bolt drummed with such power that I couldn’t resist drumming my hands along, most likely leading to minor bruising on my thighs. Keith Spencer kept the band grounded with his flawless bass grooves from the corner of the stage.
One particular element that caught my ears was Gilbride’s stellar use of noise elements. He swiftly released his hand, or sometimes a drumstick, to let just a bit of distortion come to play in their tunes. It was noisy like Roomrunner but melodic enough to fit right into Swearin’s power pop prowess. As with most sets, the encore punched into the audience’s core and gave everyone what they wanted all evening. Between “Movie Star” and its follow-up, “Kill ‘Em With Kindness,” the evening couldn’t have ended on a higher note. Do you guys remember that little-known band Weezer? When Rivers Cuomo stopped making good music, he possessed himself somehow within the members of Swearin’. “Movie Star” fills the void for Weezer fans who crave the sound of their first few albums, but they also make it entirely their own. Between Swearin’ and 2013’s Surfing Strange, Swearin’ have molded some of the most perfectly crafted power pop songs that are too catchy and forever stuck in your head.
