By DCist contributor Tori Kerr
Last night, many pulled themselves from their snow day haze to trek to the Black Cat to see Swearin’, the Philadelphia by-way-of-Brooklyn punk quartet. The band certainly jolted those in attendance out of their winter blues and played an electrifying, can’t-look-away set in the club’s backstage.
The band was off to the races with “Young,” off their latest album, 2013’s Surfing Strange. Don’t get it twisted — Allison Crutchfield’s equally talented twin sister Katie may be the introspective Waxahatchee, but Swearin’ is a punk rock powerhouse. The days of the sisters’ P.S. Eliot are (sadly) over, and both women have done nothing short of shine since.
Crutchfield shares vocal duties with Kyle Gilbride, whose sometimes-sneering, sometimes-explosive voice kept the audience locked at attention. During “Here to Hear,” from their 2012 self-titled album, Gilbride nicked a drumstick from drummer Jeff Bolt and applied it directly to his fret board, creating a ferocious effect. And that ferocity never waned throughout the rest of the performance. Following the walloping “Unwanted Place,” bassist Keith Spencer popped a guitar string, but the band played on, with Gilbride and Crutchfield playing the solo tune “Empty Head.”
In addition to songs from their two LPs, Swearin’ selected “What A Dump” from the 6-song cassette of the same name. Crutchfield’s vicious expression matched the brutality of the lyrics, “Being pretty is infinite / But being angry is real important,” that invoked the spirit of so many riot grrrls past. Naturally, Surfing Strange’s poppy single “Dust in the Gold Sack” was also a hit, but the set’s closer, the sarcastic and irresistible “Movie Star” is what seemed to move fans the most. Friends wrapped their arms around each other and chanted the words, “No one likes you when you’re as old as we are.”
Openers Title Tracks, the garage-rock/power-pop trio from ex-Q and Not U drummer John Davis, kicked things off with songs from their last record, In Blank. “Light Sleeper” was a standout, with traces of his contemporaries like Ted Leo. But older tracks, especially “Piles of Paper,” show off the band’s bigger and badder side. The band also presented two new songs, “Protect Yourself” and “I Don’t Need To Know.”
Three Stars alum Beach Week (formerly Bake Sale) opened the show with catchy surf rock tunes and an attitude to boot. Sisters Kate and Jill Miller wasted no time in cranking the reverb and treating the quickly-growing audience to songs from their Teen Dreams and Beauty Queens EP. Guitarist and vocalist Kate was wildly endearing, using breaks between songs to deliver some self-deprecating jokes. Even before discovering the family bond, a connection between the two was obvious—where Kate paused, Jill immediately picked up slack with drum fills. They wrapped up their quick set with “Beach Week,” a homage to addictive summertime love on a record-setting snow day.
