New York, NY – 19 March 2024
Open your eyes and ears
Story time… In 2001ish, I used to work with this guy. He was and remains a mostly great person. For the sake of the story we can call him Matt. Hes an amazing guy, a bit older than me and way into the Dischord sound. Actually Matt was just way into any music that came out before I found my way into the scene. It used to be a major pet peeve of mine when he would shit all over whatever Drive-Thru band he had never listened to and i was obsessed with that week. It made me never want to play the part of punker-than-thou to anyone else.
That's the backstory for how I ended up in an intimate little venue in NYC on a Tuesday night in 2024. See I don't really know much of NOAHFINNCE beyond his ascent into the indie music zeitgeist coming from his youtube channel and tik tok. An opportunity to review his show fell in my lap and I considered declining because i knew I'd be the oldest person there, because I knew there'd be a ton of vocal effects, because I knew it wasn't going to be the punk crowd I'm more accustomed to, and I was right about all of that.
But I didn't want to let myself turn into Matt. I didn't want to be the kind of person who prefers mocking the next generation rather than giving them an opportunity. So here I am in an intimate little venue in NYC on a Tuesday night in 2024… and wanna know a secret? I'm really glad I showed up for it because all 4 acts on the bill were really impressive in different ways. But first, there were some inevitable hiccups, as always. Door times were listed as 7 but the opener took the stage at 6:30… and a minor issue at the box office meant I didn't get in until 6:45 meaning I missed a good portion of the opener.
Covey not only was someone I'd not heard of but they weren't on the bill when I checked Bandsintown so I was unprepared and quite honestly pretty stoked on their pop punk musings. Singalong lyrics of teen angst and abusive assholes at Starbucks filled the room as the quartet emboldened their existing fans and won over plenty of new ones. I wish I had the opportunity to see more because I think they easily could have been my favorite act on card in a better timed situation.
Teenage Joans put out one of the best records of 2023. If you missed out on that one I'm sorry, because they may have been the band on tonight's bill I was most excited for. The Australian duo did not disappoint with their sardonic wit and crunchy bubblegum mashup. Between their raucous play-throughs of “Candy Apple” and a brilliant cover of “Call Me Maybe” the young pairing showed off their New Yawk accents, wandered to the crowd with a “g'Day mate” and winning hearts by calling a Midtown pizza place mid (if its Midtown, it's usually not really pizza). The pair were having a blast on stage, and that joy bled into the audience.
TX2 is another one I wasn't really aware of ahead of time, pompously writing them off as little more than fashion punks… and let's be honest their aesthetic is immediately noticed, but it didn't take long to see how deeply they connect their fans. The crowd was fully invested in the lyrics of grief, of acceptance and of saying fuck you to the rich, old shitbags making laws for the rest of us.
YouTube punk NOAHFINNCE (pronounced “no offense”) closed the night out with a pop-punk bubblegum sound dripping with inclusivity and joy. The alienation of youth permeates every bar of the songs but the self-assuredness is better than any “It Gets Better” commercial. Pausing the show to raise funds for the Human Rights Campaign, NOAHFINNCE made No bones about his thoughts on (as Noah put it) “the big scary trans monster the conservative monster thinks I am”
There was a genuine connection between Noah and the crowd. Every ear heard the lyrics as if they were being sung directly to them. Nobody felt unattached to the stigma-breaking, acceptance-preaching and good-time-having set put together by this next wave of punk.
I think I made the right choice to not be a Matt, and getting a glimpse into a future for the scene instead of locking myself into a game of “don't let punk grow or progress.”
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed's musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he's self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/