Live Concert Photography: Royal Headache with Sheer Mag and Downtown Boys at House of Vans 7/12/17
With permanent locations in Brooklyn, Chicago and London, as well as pop-up locations throughout the world, House of Vans is a multipurpose venue where imagination and creativity are inspired through skateboarding through concrete bowls and on iron railings, through unique art installations and live concerts. This summer, the Greenpoint, Brooklyn location along with FYF hosted a handful of House Party shows featuring Grammy Award-winning hip hop act Digable Planets, up-and-coming Chicago-based emcee Joey Purp, Rise Against, Beach Fossils, The Drums, Descendents and others.
Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the summer you’d know that it’s been a very busy summer in the world of JOVM — but earlier this summer the Greenpoint, Brooklyn hosted the up-and-coming queer, Providence, RI-based punk act Downtown Boys, the Philadelphia, PA-based punk meets classic rock act Sheer Mag, and the Sydney, Australia-based garage punk act Royal Headache. Check out photos from the show below.
With the release of their first two albums — 2012’s self titled album and 2015’s High, the Sydney, Australia-based garage punk trio Royal Headache, currently comprised of Time “Shogun” Wall (vocals), Lawrence “Law” Hall (guitar) and Gabrielle de Giorgio (keys, organ, percussion and vocals) received both national and international attention for a sound that paired fuzzy power chords with soulful singing.
Comprised of Tina Halladay, Kyle Seely, Hart Seely, Matt Palmer and Ian Dystrka, the Philadelphia, PA-based punk rock quintet Sheer Mag specialize in a sound and aesthetic that meshes 1970s rock with punk rock, and interestingly enough the band can trace its origins to when four of its five members met while attending SUNY Purchase. And with the release of three 7 inch EPs and their full-length debut Need to Feel Your Love, the Philadelphia-based punk rock act quickly exploded into the national scene as they received praise from Rolling Stone who named the band one of their “10 New Artists You Need To Know” in January 2015, played at Coachella the following year and performed on Late Night with Seth Myers.
Opening the night was the Providence, RI-based punk rock quartet Downtown Boys. Comprised of Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, Norlan Olivo, Mary Regalado and Victoria Ruiz, the Rhode Island-based punk quartet have quickly developed a national reputation for writing protest-orientated punk centered around their own experiences as young, queer. Chicana and Latino artists and musicians within an extremely whitewashed, cis-male, heterosexual world — especially within punk rock and indie rock circles; in fact, the band’s first two albums call on their fans (whether newfound or diehard) to join the struggle to smash racism, homophobia, queerphobia, exploitative capitalism, fascism, ignorance and boredom that have closed people’s minds, hearts and souls off to themselves — and to others.
The band’s third full-length album Cost of Living was produced by Fugazi‘s Guy Picciotto was released earlier this month through Sub Pop Records, and the band’s opening set at House of Vans last month focused on the band’s then-forthcoming album, including album single “The Wall,” a track the that boldly calls out Donald Trump’s “Great Wall” and its supporters for their blatant stupidity and racism, while pointing out that though the wall is symbolically meant to crush the humanity, dreams and desires of entire groups of people, that as long as people are people, brick and barb wire can never crush their humanity and decency.
For these singles and more, check out the Flickr set here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/yankee32879/5Z4115
