[ATTENDED: June 22, 2017] Chastity Belt
I first heard of Chastity Belt from All Songs Considered. They’d played their really great song, “Black Sail.” And they also brought attention to their amusing/appalling band photo (see below). The album No Regerts [sic] had some fun/funny punky feminist songs. Since then the band has released two albums (and their new one is really really good) and changed their band promo photo style (see below also). They’re still writing feminist songs but they’re slightly less abrasive (and not called things like “Giant Vagina” or “Nip Slip”).
In fact, despite their name and that particular photo below, their music is really chill. Julia Shapiro plays nicely jangly almost shoegazy guitar while Lydia Lund plays some simple but really catchy guitar lines that emphasize or counterpoint the melody. Annie Truscott keeps everything grounded with her bass and Gretchen Grimm plays some really interesting drum parts. It was particularly notable live since the drums were louder, that Gretchen wasn’t just playing snare/bass, but was playing complex patterns on her toms. It really made for a cool sound.
I also got a kick out of Shapiro handing out the setlist to everyone on what looked like little tiny pieces of paper (wonder if they were handwritten). (more…)
I Just Read About That... 