who: drug church
where: the brooklyn monarch
when: thursday, october 24, 2024
venue: i like the monarch because it’s a venue that feels familiar to me. points for having food, of course. although this time, i’m docking points because the bathroom was out of service and the coat check was closed. sound was loud as fuck, as usual. this is one of the only venues that makes me feel like i need stronger loops to protect my ears. i do not know how people survive at the brooklyn monarch without ear plugs. also, have they always taken credit cards at the bar there? i feel like i have a distinct memory of trying to scrounge up enough cash for a single bottle of water. am i losing it, or did that change? i guess i don’t remember the last time i bought something there.
merch: the merch was good, but i wish the drug church hat wasn’t a flat brim. i would have gotten it if it weren’t. i love a good baseball cap. and i was not going to spend $60 on another black sweatshirt (even though the stars drug church logo is my favorite).
bev: an orange fanta ($4.36)
opener: first of all, do people not know soul blind??? i thought soul blind was at least moderately popular. (although i feel like i saw something on reddit a while back about them having some controversy or other. what else is new in the scene.) there was not a lot of hype for soul blind – i didn’t see any stage diving, really, and i didn’t even see much of a pit. to be honest, i guess i didn’t think they sounded that great live, even for “stuck in a loop.” when they played in brooklyn a few months ago i had considered getting tickets, and i’m kind of glad i didn’t. modern color was fine, but i probably won’t listen again. between soul blind and modern color they played a taylor swift song on the speakers. i can’t recall what song. swifties, don’t hate me. sometimes all taylor swift songs kind of blend into one giant song in my head. they all sound a little bit the same (the new ones, at least).
merch spotted: 10/10 mix of merch. i saw: gorillaz, joyce manor, goo goo dolls, idles, militarie gun, circle jerks, nails (like, a LOT of nails??), siouxsie and the banshees, drug church (duh), modern color (duh), yankees, sixpoint brewery, crossfit sunset park, pity sex, stone pony (like, okay, damn), some metal band i couldn’t read because it was the spidery branches font, mystic pizza (nice), wawa (lol), alexisonfire, and also a guy from modern color was wearing a fiddlehead shirt (at least i think – i was kind of far back during their set)
crowd diversity: 0/10 i saw like one asian dude and one latina chick. there was actually a good amount of women though. i sometimes think of crowds as “tall crowds” or “short crowds,” and this was a VERY tall crowd. why are hardcore fans always so tall??? this was also an older crowd. i saw some white hair and definitely some graying heads in the crowd.
setlist: solid. i’m emotionally attached to “tillary.”
notes: i arrived at the venue just as soul blind went on. on the L, it was easy to identify who else was going to the show. sometimes that’s a game i play – trying to figure out who, if anyone else in my train car, is going to get off at the same stop and make the same trek past warehouses and parked vans to get to the venue.
i really like drug church live. before i saw them for the first time, i used to watch youtube videos of their live performances. their audiotree live session, kexp, ieperfest 2019, et cetera. they just kill it every time. and i love that there’s always an emphasis on safety, constant reminders from kindlon to fill in the gaps in front of the stage. he asked the crowd at one point to fill in on vocals for him and people absolutely fucking brought it, especially during “bliss out.”
if i’m being honest, this was an average show. drug church is always fun, and i think this was my fourth time seeing them. but sometimes i really think the openers make the show, and soul blind and modern color weren’t really for me, and i don’t feel like they really connected with the crowd that well. but i had an orange fanta, so all was well. all in all, a pleasant night at the show.
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