Photo by Helen Chen
Wednesday night with The Coathangers and The Audacity turned a work night into a play date, patient albeit one with onstage shots, mind shrieks, viagra and furious drumming by both bands. Not the worst way to go to bed late.
The Audacity, whose name will fluctuate between “The Audacity” and “Audacity” several times throughout this article, shred nuts off of bolts. As far as the Burger Records kids are concerned, these guys are the mainstays behind the popular Fullerton, CA label alongside stalwarts like The Growlers and FIDLAR (disclaimer; these bands have released their records on other labels, but are fixations in Burger events). Audacity separates themselves with a rollicking rhythm section that feels totally comfortable with quickly switching tempos and feels at will.
Despite much of the crowd not showing until The Coathangers’ set, Audacity didn’t complain. Audacity rocked. Behind some fantastic, busy drumming and some hilarious on-both-knees antics from singer/guitarist Matthew Schalfield, older tracks like “Punk Confusion” felt just as new as the material from their latest album, Butter Knife. As far as openers go, these guys had confidence befitting a major headliner. Hopefully they’ll come back as headliners sometime soon.
The Coathangers proudly hail from Atlanta, and proudly sound like a real-life Misfits album cover. They combine classic punk chords with Nissenenmondai-like guitar tones and the unmistakable roars of flimsy drums pulverized into nothingness. Over everything, they just have shrieking, bouncing, scary amounts of fun and they will win you over. Their set sounds like a goth party on some trash-ridden sand dune in the boonies where everyone will not stop yelping. The drums sounded like the tech guy turned up the “trashy” dial and forgot to turn down “garage.” It was glorious. The new material from Suck My Shirt in particular benefitted from Great Scott’s excellent sound system.
The night got better and better once the instrument switching started. Once onstage shots were taken, and all bets were taken off. Crook Coathanger (regretfully, this is only a pseudonym) turned in a effective performance on the drums while Rusty Coathanger (see previous parentheses) took over guitar and vocal duties for most of the following songs. Minnie Coathanger (you guessed it) sort of paws at her bass like a badger, but kept every song in sync quite well.
While this is not a band that prioritizes coherent lyrics in live shows, you can feel phermones get sucked out of the air and blasted back in your face as lead singer Crook yelps about her annoying little sister (“Don’t Touch My Shit”), and what I’m pretty sure was a song about period blood. I’ve seen my fair share of punk bands and heard my fair share of punk lyrics, but the gap between what these women were saying and how much fun they were having was pretty new to me. The crowd enjoyed every second; similarly-dressed concertgoers got bolder and bolder with their dancing as the night went on. It was great to see such a warm welcome for this band this far up north.
Wednesday night with The Coathangers and The Audacity was a night of punky fun and great times. Check out both of these bands as you’re blasting your way on into summer.
