Scala, London
“Now we can have some fun...”
The Philadelphian punk group return to the U.K. toward the tail end of a 13 week-long tour, ratcheting up such levels of punk-inflicted intensity and hell-bent on setting the record straight in their name.
As the huddled masses continually stream into London’s Scala, a hushed environment elicits Mannequin Pussy’s arrival tonight: a subdued dissonance fraught against the impaling waves of modern punk and hardcore recently tied to such an act. ‘I Don’t Know You’ simmers and broods amidst whispers and airy synth lines as lead singer Marisa "Missy" Dabice laments a fractured romance (“I know a lot of things but I don’t know you”).
Stoked from these embers broods ‘Sometimes’, a surefire pop-grunge highlight from their recent 4th LP, I Got Heaven, signalling an evolution in the band’s distinctly grungier, indie-inflected sounds prior, particularly with the additional guitarist standing before us tonight. Vocally reminiscent of the wailing likes of Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Dabice offers further versatility in her delivery: shrieks of screaming, moments of carefree whispering, screeches against the distorted backdrop to magnanimous effect.
‘Loud Bark’ and the LP’s title track evolve these notions once more, pushing the crowd into hypnotic pulsations, relentlessly bopping and bristling to the more frenetic rhythms at hand. Whilst the former garners a great crescendo, the latter remains inspiringly indicative of the grunge/alternative rock scene which beseeched the nineties (Sunny Day Real Estate, Hole), bolstered by Dabice’s improved vocal tenacity which bites with a vengeance seldom heard from the group thus far (“I am spiteful like a God, seek a vengeance like the rest”).
Although this veneer stumbles and falters in various moments this evening (‘Nothing Like’), Mannequin Pussy’s affinity for hardcore punk rears its opportunistic head amidst a relentless burgeoning which bears fruitful in the latter half. Broodingly hardcore antics incite themselves amongst ‘Aching’ (“I wanna feel it from the top!”) whilst ‘OK? OK! OK? OK!’ signifies a resolute stand-out tonight: a surefire diamond in the ruffage of the hardcore scene afflicted by the recently popular likes of Turnstile, Chubby and the Gang, and Code Orange.
As the band’s status elevates amongst relentlessly colliding crowds, their preceding EP from 2021, Perfect, continues these enticing tropes to devastating effect from the blaring distortions, beat switches and clamouring vocals. The EP’s title track, as well as ‘Pigs Pigs Pigs’ and ‘Control’ each offer a pertinent progression in the band’s overall repertoire, initiating role reversals between Dabice and bassist Colins "Bear" Regisford, as Mannequin Pussy delve further into the historic sounds of their beloved proto-punk genre, a-la Bad Brains and Black Flag.
Beyond the calling-out of “BBC Radio 6 Music Dads” in the audience, as well as the collective-audience screaming and correction of the BBC’s misreference of the band’s name (“it’s Mannequin PUSSY”), Missy & Co blaze through their sounds of old and new within the curmudgeoning realms of alt-rock, punk and hardcore. With the frontwoman slinking from either side of stage, carelessly whispering (Marilyn Monroe-esque) between tracks throughout, Mannequin Pussy have not only evolved their sound in recent years but, as shown tonight, their repertoire and on-stage presence, swimming through a multitude of emotional riptides in an ongoing evolution which deems fruitful.
7/10
Mannequin Pussy's latest LP, I Got Heaven, is out now via Epitaph Records and can be found below.
Photo is courtesy of The Red Beanie Photography whose work can be found here.
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