Bad Copy

It wasn’t that long ago when I first heard Gladie. I was sitting on my couch, drafting posts for this exact site, and working my way through a list of artists and bands that I had meant to listen to months if not years ago to see if I had a guttural response to anything. If you have read any of my prior show reviews over the last few years, you may have picked up on my exhaustion with the scene, with punk and punk adjacent music, and kind of with the world of music in general. Covid did a real number on my show-going and now that I have returned to a life of pseudo-normalcy, I am finding it challenging to hop back into a world that didn’t stop when the world did. And, to be honest, I don’t care for most of the music that I once felt like I would die for.

When I first clicked on PLAY and heard the first few notes of a Gladie song, I was intrigued. I stopped drafting news posts and clicked through a few tracks on their Bandcamp and loved them even more with every song. By the end of the night, I was humming along to a few tracks I had become familiar with and found that they would be playing in Chicago at the end of April… with Noun! I HAD TO GO. It took almost a month before I realized that I would be in a car headed to Gladie’s hometown of Philly (for Sing Us Home Festival) the night that they would be playing in my city.. But I refused to miss them. So, the night before the Chicago show, I hopped in my car and headed the 1.5 hours to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to catch them at The Cactus Club instead.

I parked and ran through the rain into the venue to find that the opening band, Buena Cara, had just taken the stage. The Milwaukee-based trio played a shorter setlist as the room filled in, joking about song title changes and bantering with the crowd. Their brand of emotionally charged emo and punk carried a raw urgency that filled the tiny stage. It was the perfect opener.

Next up was Noun, the longstanding solo project of Marissa Paternoster (Screaming Females) which began back in 2004. Over the years, Noun has performed with an ever changing lineup. And while I have never been to a Noun show before, I feel like I got to see one of the best incarnations of the band. Their songs twisted between jagged indie rock, dissonant noise, and surprisingly delicate moments, creating a push-and-pull dynamic that kept the audience’s full attention. Live, the band sounded even more restless and adventurous than on record, turning feedback and tension into something oddly hypnotic. The set somehow felt both far too short and completely timeless in the best possible way, like coming out of a crystal bowl meditation track on YouTube and suddenly realizing you’ve lost all sense of time and place because you were so completely mesmerized. Just me? I hope not!

By the time Gladie took the stage, the room was fully locked in. Led by Augusta Koch (ex-Cayetana), the band delivered a powerful set, full of massive indie rock laced with power-pop hooks, all wrapped in an engaging and energetic performance. Bassist Evan is a powerhouse, jumping and swinging hair all over the stage while holding down the bass. It was hard to focus on anything or anyone else. Drummer Miles also held down the percussion while tucked away at the back of the stage, steady and unwavering. Guitarist Matt was initially seen more than heard as they were tucked away on a darkened stage left. But then there was a joke made about the state drink being milk (which is a true fact, I Googled it. Gross) which took Matt out of the shadows for the remainder of the set.

And at the front of it all was Augusta whose presence was understated yet magnetic, calm and yet quietly intense. Between songs, her delivery felt casual and unguarded, but once the band locked into a track, she shifted effortlessly into a focused emotional current that gave every lyric extra weight. The band’s songs from No Need To Be Lonely, their most recent release, were a clear crowd favorite, as the room quietly sung along. When the final song ended, there was a brief hesitation before applause erupted, almost as if the crowd refused to break the spell that was cast during the set. Overall, all three bands wove together kind of performance and experience that reminds you why small rooms and deeply human music still matter so much. It’s exactly one of those experiences that reminded me why I still go out to shows, why I crave those experiences, and why I would drive 3 hours roundtrip to not miss a band I recently fell in love with.

Check out my photos from the night below: