[ATTENDED: January 26, 2024] Pinkshift [rescheduled from October 13, 2023, because of flooding]
This was my fourth time seeing Pinkshift in just over two years. It’s impressive how much bigger and more confident they’ve gotten in this time.
I hadn’t intended to go to this show when it was scheduled for October because I had other plans. But this show getting flooded out (and subsequently shutting down the great House of Independents) did allow me to
I hadn’t realized that Pinkshift released an EP back in August. It’s called Suraksha (Hindi for “security” or “safety” or “protection.”). Singer Ashrita Kumar says, “I grew up listening to in Bollywood and Indian classical music would round out the songs perfectly. Going into the studio, the only thing on my mind was my family, and making these songs was unique because in my head I was making it for them.”
So that’s cool. The EP has some traditional Indian sounds on it and live (and this was about the coolest thing), they had someone playing sitar (I think it was a sitar). Ashrita Kumar introduced her, but I didn’t catch her name or the band she plays in.
The sitar was mostly used as an interstitial between these three new songs–she would have been drowned out during the main body of the songs if she was playing. But it was so cool to see her up there with this great punk band.
They followed it up with a new song, called “Blood.” Pinkshift has never shied from speaking their minds. This time they look beyond personal issues to take on something bigger: “There’s blood in the water, there’s blood in the trees.” A wish that Western colonization of all lands would end. She dedicated the song to the people of Palestine. It was heavy and intense.
As always drummer Myron Houngbedji was amazing. His intensity and skills are formidable. They had a new bassist on this tour (but he was not introduced and their press photos still only show three people).
Guitarist Paul Vallejo is still an amazing force–he can shred with the best but he has an overall fantastic sound.
Then they moved into songs that I knew (I wondered why I didn’t recognize the other songs, had I forgotten their music?).
I had seen them play “Burn the Witch” last year and it was possibly more intense this time.
I don’t mean to comment on people’s appearance, but I kind of miss Ashrita’s longer hair because it looked amazing when she whipped it around. I mean, she’s still an amazing front woman, doing incredibly intense things on stage, but it was fun watcher her hair follow her along.
I first heard “Nothing” when they didn’t have a name for it, so that’s fun.
I really know their first EP the best, so when they played “On Thin Ice” I was pretty psyched. It was also around here that I realized that I’d only ever seen them as an opening band when they were playing 7 songs a night. But there was to be a lot more.
They played another new song, another which was just as intense as the others. Then Let Me Drown from the full length.
And from here to the end it was mostly the Saccharine EP. “Mars” gets more intense each time I see it.
But one of the real highlights came when they played “Eat Your Friends” a new song that they recorded with Jhariah for this tour. Of course, he came out to sing with them and by the middle of the song Jhariah and Ashrita were in the middle of the pit that consumed most of the middle of the floor.
I can’t ever get enough of “i’m gonna tell my therapist on you” because the song is just as good as the title.
There are 12 songs on their full length LP, and I’ve seen them play 7. I wonder if they had been playing that whole album before the new EP came out. Their whole set isn;t that long so, they could have probably played a few more. But it’s hard to keep that much intensity up.
Plus, Ashrita (and the band) were energized against Israel and were getting the crowd riled up to action. It was pretty inspiring and I hope even a quarter of the audience was moved to action.
“Love Me Forever” slows things down, but doesn’t lessen the intensity as Ashrita shows off just how amazing her voice is (I mean, damn, this woman can sing! And her range just gets better with every release).
After a brief encore they came back and blew through two more songs from Saccharine, the 90 second “Toro” and the longer “Rainwalk.”
By this time the crowd was in a frenzy. It was a great show. And a great bill overall. I’m curious if Pinkshift will follow in Mannequin Pussy’s trajectory and if they’ll be headlining Union Transfer after their next album comes out.
| January 2024 [headlining] | January 2023 | |
| Lullaby ¥ | I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying ♥ | |
| Home ¥ | nothing (in my head) ♥ | |
| To Me ¥ | GET OUT ♥ | |
| Blood [new] | the kids aren’t alright ♥ | |
| Burn The Witch ♥ | Burn The Witch ♥ | |
| nothing (in my head) ♥ | i’m gonna tell my therapist on you $ | |
| On Thin Ice $ | Love Me Forever ♥ | |
| new song (“fuck what you say”) | ||
| Let Me Drown ♥ | ||
| Mars $ | ||
| Eat Your Friends [new] (with Jhariah) | ||
| i’m gonna tell my therapist on you $ | ||
| the kids aren’t alright ♥ | ||
| Love Me Forever ♥ | ||
| encore | ||
| Toro $ | ||
| Rainwalk $ |
| May 2022 | Oct 2021 | |
| Toro $ | Toro $ | |
| Mars $ | Mars $ | |
| GET OUT ♥ | GET OUT ♥ | |
| On Thin Ice $ | On Thin Ice $ | |
| I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying ♥ | cherry (we’re all gonna die) ♥ | |
| nothing (in my head) ♥ | nothing (in my head) ♥ [at the time was known as “Crapple” | |
| i’m gonna tell my therapist on you $ | i’m gonna tell my therapist on you $ | |
| Rainwalk $ | Rainwalk $ |
¥ Suraksha EP (2023)
I Just Read About That... 