[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. (more…)
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