[ATTENDED: April 7, 2019] SWMRS
I was unfamiliar with SWMRS when I heard they were announced as Muse’s support act.
They formed in 2011 as Emily’s Army. They recorded two albums under that name, then changed it to SWMRS. The band features brothers Cole and Max Becker (They are both singers and guitarists, with Cole taking more lead vocals (and hypeman) and Max playing more lead guitar). The drummer is Joey Armstorng (obligatory mention that he is Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong’s son). They also have had Joey’s brother Jakob on rhythm guitar. Brother-to-no-one Seb Mueller is the bassist.
But it was their politics that made me excited to see them. From a bit in Rolling Stone:
the subversion of patriarchy is part of what drives the band. They are a product of their respectively progressive upbringings in Oakland, where the young band members grew up loving riot grrrl and entrenched in feminist teachings. “I became aware at a pretty young age that I was benefiting too much from the patriarchy,” Becker, a current Berkeley student, explains. “It’s one of those things where you don’t think about it until you play a hundred shows and only see aggressive, hyper-masculine dudes crowd surfing on top of 14-year-old girls. We feel like it’s our duty to uplift the voices that aren’t as easily heard as ours.”
That’s pretty awesome. And an encouraging sign for the youth of tomorrow.
That feminism wasn’t really on display at the show, but their attitude of progressive values came through on most of the songs.
When they came out onstage I couldn’t believe how young they looked. I knew they started Emily’s Army when they were young, so I assumed, just looking at hem, they there were still teenagers. Turns out Cole, Seb and Joey are 23/24, and Max is incredibly 25 (I thought he was 15 from across the stage). But they were mid-teenagers when they started playing.
Emily’s Army was a bit more of a pop punk band and SWMRS are a bit more all over the map, but with a definitively punky aesthetic.
Cole Becker is an amazingly confident and energetic frontman (which makes sense if he;s been doing it for nearly a decade). He commanded an arena sized crowd–who was not there to see them–into dancing, pogoing, clapping and even parting to make room for a slam dance area. The teenagers in front of me went from mocking them a bit at the beginning to clapping along by the end. He is also astonishingly full of energy–jumping around, doing bizarre walk/stomps and being generally a hyperactive kid. You couldn’t stop looking at him. He also wore a Fuck the NRA T-shirt under his blue sports coat.
He played acoustic guitar for a few songs (I never saw everything he had written on it, but it was something about this machine killing fascists, but updated to the 21st century somehow). It also said NO BAN, NO WALL, ABOLISH ICE.
They played songs from their two albums as SWMRS and by the end of the show I was totally a fan.
My favorite moment(s) came when Cole encouraged everyone to applaud everyone working at the arena–something I have never heard any arena-sized band do, ever. Followed by a special thank you to “the person without whom you would not be here–everybody give a big thank to your mom.”
They opened with “Trashbag Baby,” a catchy song with a cool ringing lead guitar riff. Max sings most of the lead vocals (he has a much more laid back delivery), but they each sing the hyper chorus. “Berkeley’s on Fire” is quite a shift. Cole sings lead vocals and the whole song has a kind of feel of The Clash, which I really like. It opens with some cool harmonic guitar chords and a jolting backing guitars. With this nice punk lyric:
Because TV news is bad for you
And bad TV is news for you
It’s just a ploy, keep you under control
Too many, too many motherfuckers
Confusing this freedom speech with swastikas
Cole described “Lose Lose Lose” as a dance song and the hyperactive melody sure got everyone bouncing
2019 is a fucking disaster
Dear Vladimir Putin, stop fucking up my shit
‘Cause I know I can fuck it up faster
Oh, mamá, no soy Patricia, soy Tania
Tania Guevara
Oh, mamá, don’t call me Patricia anymore
I know I swore if I got pushed down one more time
I’d lose, lose, lose my mind
I’d lose, lose, lose my mind.
I didn’t even hear this ending chorus until I just looked up the lyrics:
Death to the mother-fucking fascist insect This shit makes me so sadistic
They continued with a song from the previous album, “Miley.” Which is a peon to Miley Cyrus (who is, amusingly only one year older than them, but who has been on TV for most of their lives). It seemed like a joke at first but the lyrics are sincere and it’s really catchy.
“Hellboy” is an anti violence song and “April in Houston” is a mellower, more acoustic sounding song.
“Palm Trees” and “Figuring It Out” have fun singalong punk chorus (Whoa hos and what not). And they were catchy and fun too.
SWMRS played a show two days later at TLA (during their one day off from a Muse show (!)). They played 6 extra songs last night, and I imagine that since they were headlining and it was a smaller venue, that they were incredibly engaging and a ton of fun.
This review (from The Official Blog Of WKDU Philadelphia 91.7 FM) includes this excerpt from the TLA show:
The band was extremely interactive with the crowd, often stopping the show to talk with individual audience members from the stage. Becker then explained how important it is to recognize any form of sexual harassment that may go on during the show, asking for the band to be told if this happens so they can stop the show and “kick that mother f***** out!!!!!”
Although I had no intention of going to the TLA show, it sounds like an amazing night with two up and coming punk bands Beach Goons and Destroy Boys.
The youth of America may just save us yet.
SETLIST
- Trashbag Baby
- Berkeley’s on Fire
- Too Much Coffee
- Lose Lose Lose
- Miley
- BRB
- Hellboy
- April in Houston
- Palm Trees
- Figuring It Out
bold songs from Berkeley’s on Fire 2019
Drive North 2016
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