I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 4, 2026] Sincere Engineer

I’m not sure how I first heard of Sincere Engineer, but as soon as I heard them, I loved them.  I love their bouncy pop punk sound, I love the snarky lyrics and I love  Deanna Belos’ voice!  Raspy and angry which still being completely clear and easy to understand.  It’s perfect.  Especially with catchy, kiss off lyrics like

And I should’ve said ………something
But I really said …………nothing
And I should’ve said ……………..something
Before I twist my tongue
And clench my teeth
And let you get away
With saying that to me

They opened with that song and I was super psyched from the get go.

Before that song their entrance music was the theme from Star Trek the Next Generation, which was hilarious and wonderful.

After the new song, they jumped back to Cheap Grills for two songs: Anemia and California King–a simple, catchy bouncy song that is pretty irresistible.

Back to new songs with Settle Up With Your Downfall, a slower more serious song, but the follow up The Perfect Crime was super catchy, only beaten in catchiness by Fireplace, one of the catchiest, snarkiest songs in recent memory.  And everyone sang along, including the eleven year old who was celebrating her birthday at the show.  This girl was cute, standing up front wearing a birthday hat.  She’d probably talked to Deanna before, but Deanna made a big deal out of her and dedicated the next song Corn Dog Sonnet to her.

It was fast and fun, just like Cooler.  And even though my understanding is that this is Deanna’s band, the guys behind her are fantastic Adam Beck on drums, Kyle Geib on guitar, and Nick Arvanitis on bass keep the show smooth and clearly enjoying playing.

There was a tone shift with the wonderfully titled Library of Broken Bindings.  There was a dude behind me who occasionally screamed the lyrics which was really irritating.  He tried to scream along to the “ooooh” part of this song but, luckily he failed and gave up.  Things stayed mellow for Arborvitae Evergreen.

But they blasted out the end of the set with DNA and Overbite (from their earliest album) with the growing-up refrain “I don’t care about anything as much as I used to.”  It was hard for me to tell if people liked this first album Rhombithian more, but it seemed like everyone was just crazy about the CHeap Grills album.

AS they walked off stage the song “Talkin’ Softball” from The Simpsons played

Sincere Engineer make me think of The Beths.  They don’t really sound the same at all, but there’s a similar vibe of thoughtful lyrics [they both have a line about wanting to ride their bike!] set to catchy as hell music.  They are also both super nice and I feel like they would have the most delightful tour together.

After a minute or so they returned with three more songs.  The crowd went nuts as they played Landline and everyone sang along to the big “Hey Baby!”  After the fast and catchy Fast Forward, they ended the set with the only song from their Bless My Psyche album.

After the show I waited for some merch and chatted with Deanna who was the sweetest person.  Their merch is fantastic–I love the art style a lot (like in the poster).  Even their previous merch is great.  I would happily wear any of their shirts, their aesthetic is so good.

The only sad thing about this whole thing is that I see they tend to put out albums every three years or so.  Does that mean I’ll have to wait three years to see them again?

Ψ Probably Claws (2026)
¢ Cheap Grills (2023)
® Rhombithian (2017)
↑ Bless My Psyche (2021)