Leo Slattery Photo
Cat Crash: “We’re a dancing band.”
The room was a sea of tattoos, fish nets, and dyed hair as three bands almost entirely composed of queer people performed at Witch Bitch Thrift.
Their songs about acceptance and recovery weren’t told calmly; they were screamed.
This month, many Pride celebrations focus on being community events, aimed at encouraging LGBTQ representation and tolerance in towns and families. However, Pride originates from the Stonewall Riots, a series of violent fights following a police raid on a gay bar.
The bands at Witch Bitch Thrift on Friday maintained that original fight.
It made sense that this happened at Witch Bitch Thrift, an unmistakably queer place, Pride month or not. Their ungendered clothing store may give this away, but the selection of performances for their black box performance space solidified it.
The first act was Untold Joys, featuring Violet Falkowski and Victoria Grous. The Connecticut band typically performs with two guitars, a bass, and a drum kit, but tonight they only had acoustic guitar and electric bass. Their set was intimate, with both band and crowd sitting on the floor of the venue. The songs were varied; as Falkowski said, “we’ll do some quiet ones, then start yelling.”
Untold Joy’s first song was a Steven Sondheim cover, followed by a mixture of indie rock and folk originals. A crowd favorite was introduced with cheers when Falkowski simply stated that next was “a song about my favorite beverage, Drano.”
The lack of half the band didn’t detract from the set, as the bass provided ample support for the percussive guitar and scream-singing. During the more scream‑y songs, Falkowski encouraged the audience to clap in pattern, and hit their guitar as a drum. That said, despite the songs being described as screaming, many of them had full Broadway-worthy belt choruses. After the set, Falkowski warned the audience “if you go anywhere I’m gonna freak out. I’m gonna find you.” Because next up was Jack Flowers and The Petal Tones.
Jack and the Petal Tones — Jack on bass and vocals, Kyle and Tim on guitar, and Anthony on drums — are a New Jersey-based act, and the friendship among the band members was immediately obvious. Three of them were once all roommates and were responsible for encouraging one another to start seriously playing music. The band is best described as indie rock, though much like Untold Joys, they span genres. One of the guitarists’ old skate deck turned pedal board was reminiscent of emo, and songs ranged from punk to riot grrrl to an officially licensed rock cover of “Helpless” from Hamilton. Some songs were fast, inviting the audience to mosh or two-step.
Many of the songs discuss feeling alienated: from society due to technology, from community due to not fitting into, from feeling uncomfortable in one’s own body. Their final song was a slow dance about “the prom we wish we had.” As it turned out, “slow dance” was perhaps inaccurate. The audience was encouraged to dance in groups of two, three, one big group, or alone. At first, people paired with their friends. But as the music picked up, one large circle formed, including everyone in the audience. The circle moved in and out, jumped and flowed.
Cat Crash — Cecil on bass and vocals, Brett and Ren on guitar, and Will on drums — encouraged the audience to get cat-ear headbands from the back of the venue to match with the band. Cecil beckoned the audience to come forward, saying “we’re a dancing band, you gotta be up close and dancing.”
Cat Crash’s music, much like The Petal Tones, is an incredibly queer mix of punk, indie rock, and riot grrrl. All of the members sang, including Will, who emerged from the drum kit to scream-sing about a “stupid table in excellent condition” from Facebook marketplace. Cecil was very direct with the audience about what they wanted in a performance. They instructed people to dance, scream, chant, and mosh. In the audience, Jack of the Petal Tones showed an attendee how to two-step.
Cat Crash wore its influences on its collective sleeve. The band had songs about famous bands, like My Chemical Romance or Nirvana, but included their own identities as well. Like the Petal Tones, many songs were about feeling like an other in life. Cecil sang about growing up both queer and Asian in a predominately non-Asian area. However, all the bands that performed wanted their audience to feel welcome. The songs about alienation reminded us that no one is alone in feeling like an outsider, and no one is alone in struggles with mental health. At one point in their set, Cecil asked the audience how many people had ever felt that they wanted to go to bed and never wake up, and was met with hesitant nods from everyone in the room.
They looked out at the crowd. “You’re not alone, and everyone in this room has felt that,” they said.