I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 4, 2025] Des Demonas

I thought I had never heard of Des Demonas, but I see that they were supposed to open for Tropical Fuck Storm in 2020 (!) but it was cancelled for Corona.

And here’s what I wrote:  Lead singer Jacky Cougar Abok has a delivery like early Nick Cave and their bio is fascinating.

Jacky Cougar Abok is the six-foot-five-inch tall Kenyan punk singer who has drummed with Thee Lolitas and Foul Swoops. Guitarist Mark Cisneros has bent strings with Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, Deathfix, and Medications and pounded the traps for The Make-Up and Benjy Ferree, the latter alongside organist Paul Vivari. Joe Halladay (Citygoats) on bass and Ryan Hicks (Suns Of Guns) on drums round out this squared circle of sight and sound.

We wound up being a few minutes late.  This wasn’t a big deal since my wife has won tickets to the show at XPNFest (!).  The venue also had to arrange ADA seating for us, so that took some time.  They are a raw punk band–really quite different from Neko Case. I really liked them, but I imagine many people didn’t enjoy them.  Their main driving sound was an old-fashioned organ sound–quite unexpected for their propulsive vibe. 

And of course there’s the major presence of Jacky Cougar Abok.  He stands largely still (sometimes with a tambourine) and chants his lyrics.  He seemed undaunted or perhaps uninterested in what the audience thinks because he knows that he is in the right.  He was wearing a shirt that said simply, Trump is a Pig.  And it turns out that his delivery is absolutely nothing like Nick Cave (don’t know why I thought that).  He sing/speaks in a kind of deadpan and the lyrics are repeated over and over.

The new album is called Apocalyptic Boom Boom which in an interview he said summed up their purpose perfectly.

With lyrics like: you kill the neighbors, you kill the plants, you kill the sea, you kill the land,  shaken and destroyed by the killing machine

They have a feeling of Rage Against the Machine and yet they don’t sound anything like them.  But the way they speak truth blunty and repeatedly shows a real kinship.  And yet that organ sound feels so retro it’s almost a shock to hear a Kenyan accent sing these words over it.

And this is not to underplay the great guitar work as well.  The organ sets the tone, but the guitar plays some great licks and cool solos as well.

It’s a fantastic combination.

And how can you not love a song called The South Will Never Rise Again.  The chorus is simply shouted The. South. Will. Neh. Ver. Rise. Uh. Gain. With a little ad libbed “ha ha” at the end.

There’s nothing flashy or fancy about them and I would definitely like to see them again.  They only have two albums out, and I definitely need to listen some more.