Show review: Perfect Pussy at Schubas, 1/22/14

By Sarah Rosenfeld

Syracuse noise-punks Perfect Pussy headlined a short, but very loud and high-energy all-ages show at Schubas this past Wednesday night. The band first generated some serious interest after playing CMJ Music Marathon in NYC last October and have a debut LP Say Yes to Love coming out March 18th on Captured Tracks. Touring basically nonstop since releasing their four song cassette I Have Lost All Desire For Feeling, Perfect Pussy seem to be riding their buzzwaves well.

Wednesday's show was definitely not running on punk time. Doors said 7 p.m. and the first band was already on by 7:30 p.m. Local Chicago garage punks and DIY scene vets Split Feet brought their self-described "wyrd noisy dark sounds" to open the night, followed by Chicago hardcore band Broken Prayer. With the night almost over before 9 p.m., Perfect Pussy went on around 8:45pm and played hard and fast for a set that lasted about 15 minutes. Launching immediately into an abrasive soundscape with heavily distorted and feedback laden guitars and vocals, front-woman Meredith Graves frenetically screamed almost unintelligibly but very enthusiastically at the crowd, who responded by starting a moshpit. According to a pre-listen of their cassette demo, she was yell-singing about the kind of real, unadulterated bullshit that really pisses a girl off. The sound guy probably should have had the vocals turned up louder to compensate for a band who definitely puts the noise in noise-punk, but even on the cassette the vocals are tough to make out. Short, not-so-sweet, furiously heavy and to the point, Perfect Pussy zipped caustically from one song to the next and the night was over by 9 p.m. Meredith thanked Schubas for letting them do an all ages show and hung around afterwards taking hugs and mixtapes from fans. For a band getting such strong media attention, it was a sweet and unpretentious gesture.

Considering that it was well below zero on Wednesday night in Chicago there was a decent sized crowd out for this show. It was great to see this kind of band play to such a young and energetic crowd; they are clearly building a strong fan base here in Chicago. Their almost too-short set will hopefully get longer once the LP is out and as the young band adjusts to the rigors of such a heavy touring schedule. Perfect Pussy would be right at home playing a dark basement DIY show but will likely be playing bigger venues as the year goes on, so if you missed them this time around definitely grab a ticket to their next show. You may want to bring ear plugs, unless that's not punk rock enough for you.