I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 30, 2024] Drinking Boys and Girls Choir

I saw Drinking Boys and Girls Choir open for Otoboke Beaver about 8 months ago.  They were great and so much fun.  When they announced a headline tour of the States I immediately grabbed a ticket.

I love Johnny Brenda’s as a venue, but the parking around there has gotten so bad, it’s almost impossible to go.

The place wasn’t very crowded but everyone there was super excited to be there.  When Megan Nisbet asked if anyone had seen them with Otoboke Beaver, most of the audience enthusiastically raised their hands.

Meena Bae (bass & vocals) and Myeong-jin Kim (drums & vocals) started the band in 2012.  They’ve gone through a few guitarists over the years and have now grabbed Scottish guitarist Megan Nisbet who joined the band in 2020 (and had been studying Korean for 15 years!).

The trio came out and Megan whaled some feedback as they started “Limitless Night.”    Meena Bae is a phenomenal frontwoman, she has a great voice and a ton of energy.  She smiles when she’s not singing and she jumps and kicks her feet in the air.

It was hilarious and fun.

Megan doesn’t really interact with the crowd, as she really holds down the songs with fantastic solos (she gets an extended, impressive solo in “Red Shift” which made someone at the end of the song shout expletives of approval) and backing vocals.

Myeong-jin (who goes by MJ) is a really impressive drummer–always on beat and showing off with some occasional double bass drumming.  She also sang while playing!

Some of the lyrics (and titles) are in Korean and some in English, so it’s fun to try to figure out if you can figure out the fast words or if they are in Korean.

They played “Linda Linda” (the song  that gave The Linda Lindas their name)–a song that they recorded as a single BEFORE the U.S. band came out!   During the song, she handed someone her bass (right where I had been standing–I had moved before the set started) gave her mic to someone else and  then proceeded to slam dance everyone in the crowd, including me!

“History” is their most recent single–their first single recorded with Megan (a new album is on the way, after this tour).

“National Police Shit” is super catchy, sung in English and really quite funny.  It’s less than 2 minutes long and features the line “This is just Skateboard!”  I recognized “I’m a Fucking McDonald’s” and was happy to understand the lyrics this time.

Meena Bae asked if anyone knew The Linda Lindas.  Of course we did.  They played a cover of the band’s new song “No Obligation.”  Then they played three final songs.

During one of them Meena Bae came back in the audience with her bass and played and jumped with the crowd.  Super fun.

The show was just about an hour, which felt too short!  Although, it also felt complete–they gave it their all.

There was an encore–the rather appropriate “Let’s Sing & Keep Drinking.”  After the song, MJ came over and high fived everyone and Meena Bae (who had been flinging picks into the crowd all night) came over and high fived everyone in the front, too.

I saw that the band members were hanging around and chatting with people, but I thought I might need to get back to my car (2 hour parking limit), so I bought their vinyl (which I had wanted to last time) and headed home, thrilled with a great concert.

They said they hoped to be back again after their album comes out and I’ll be there!

우 우​리​는​, (We are​,​) (2017)
⊗ Keep Drinking!! (2019)
♦ 2019 single
£ 2020 single
∞ Marriage License (2021)
∇ 2024 single