In spite of the recent departure of a founding member, a high-profile van break-in, and a band name destined to put them forever at odds with Google SafeSearch, Philadelphia’s Mannequin Pussy are on tour in 2022. And in a landscape where simply playing a show feels like you’re defying a conspiratorial universe determined to make you postpone or cancel, they’re putting their whole selves into each of these precious gigs, kicking off their latest journey with a riotous set at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke, MA. Wielding new guitars and the same attitude that has made them a major force in punk music since their debut in 2014, the band are touring behind their latest release, Perfect, an EP that sees them continue the auditory branching-out that started on 2019’s Patience, without ever departing from that core fury that makes them such an infectious listen.
While songs from early MP albums were rarely more than two minutes in length, often much shorter, Patience marked a turning point for the band and gave even more space for bandleader Marisa “Missy” Dabice’s lyrics to shine. Standout track ‘Drunk II’, which features early in their set at Gateway, is a heart-wrenchingly relatable account of Dabice in a post-breakup state, feigning okayness and strength while behind the scenes numbing herself to soothe regret. Its four-minute runtime gives the track more space for peaks and valleys, with a stripped-back chorus where Dabice ponders, “Everyone says to me, ‘Missy you’re so strong’ – but what if I don’t want to be?” Even as the band has moved into writing lengthier songs, the quieter parts remain just as exacting as the loudest climaxes. Another perfect example of this dynamic being ‘High Horse’, which builds from naught but a low rumble to a power-chord-infused finish, turning on its heels with a huge, cathartic scream.
The band engages with this notion of catharsis directly, and midway through the set they create a hypnotic, ambient soundscape for a moment while Dabice speaks to the crowd. “We are all here, every single one of you is here tonight because all of you, you’re just like us. And you’re here because you feel it, that deep pit inside of you, this place where we just push down everything that happens to us we wish we could forget. But the thing about the pit is that, if you don’t access it sometimes and force it to transform into something else, it takes over your body like a poison.” And it’s at this point that Missy invites the entirety of the audience to take this unique social context of a show to just scream together for a few seconds on the count of three, and when the room erupts into that sound the band launches into their next song.
The band’s set is a fairly comprehensive selection from their two most recent albums, as well as Perfect, occasionally going back even further for tracks like ‘Clue Juice’. Constant across their whole discography are Missy’s impressive vocal range and impassioned screams, as well as the spot-on rhythm section of Kaleen Reading’s expert drumming and the distorted crunch of Colins “Bear” Regisford’s bass anchoring each song. But equally interesting are the ways in which the band has evolved – when the keyboards punch through on tracks from Patience and Perfect, it’s noticeable how much they elevate the song. There are stylistic shifts too; the refrain in the bridge of ‘Control’, where Dabice repeats “something’s in your eyes”, wouldn’t feel out of place in a much poppier song, but still feels perfectly at home in the Mannequin Pussy canon.
Another landmark change for the band on Perfect arrives with the track “Pigs is Pigs”, where Regisford hands his bass off to Dabice and he takes the microphone from its stand and comes to the front of the stage to sing, the first MP song where he takes the lead. It’s the song with which the band ends their set, a powerful indictment of police brutality that directly calls out the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the killing of Breonna Taylor in a no-knock raid as she slept. He’s up-front about his fears: he doesn’t want to die alone, to be lost and erased in this litany of abuse. He makes the imperative clear to the listener: “It’s all on you – decide.” While MP’s music is more often about interpersonal relationships than power structures, their critiques of the latter are just as emphatic as the former, and if this is a sign of what’s to come – Dabice did say during the set that they’ll be writing a new album after this tour – then the next Mannequin Pussy release is guaranteed to be a mighty record indeed.
Review and Photos by Collin Heroux
