By: Marlee Billiter

Saturday, February 11, I experienced one of the most thrilling events of my life. Show Me the Body is a punk band with a significant difference from others. The grueling sounds heard within each song don’t come from a run-of-the-mill guitar, but a distorted banjo. Lead singer Julian Cashwan Pratt plays this extraordinary instrument excellently alongside drummer Jackie McDermott and bassist Harlan Steed. The band embodies the genre of punk, creating a raw sound through their own style, protruding an electrifying vibe.

The concert included four openers, Tripp Jones, Zulu, Scowl, and Jesus Piece. Each one was compelling to a lover of punk without sounding similar to the last. For starters, I had no idea we were getting four openers; I didn’t think all of them would come to little North Carolina. I was so wrong. The concert started at 8, Show Me the Body didn’t come out till 11. 

The easiest way to describe Tripp Jones is Freddie Dredd, whom he shares many tracks with. He has the phonk vibe with hitting rap and synthesized trap. An emo girl’s favorite. He played one song–I spent hours that night trying to find it–that sounded similar to Bladee. I was wowed when he started singing. It was easily fun to hear and the crowd agreed as they bobbed their heads to the beat. 

Zulu came out next, an African-American awareness death metal band. The lead singer came out with a Hello Kitty beanie on his head. When he started singing full on death metal, there was the biggest moment of confusion. My boyfriend was laughing just before the band started playing saying, “We’re right in the middle if they open the pit.” I laughed, but I had never seen a mosh pit before, so I wasn’t thinking too much of it. Little did we know that right as the music started, the pit would be opened and I’d be pushed to the ground immediately. People were punching the air, punching people, kicking, running in circles, running into people, jumping on and off the stage to crowd surf, so much was going on… it was amazing. The chaos was perfect. Not only was the music absolutely fire, the crowd was insane, but what did I expect? It’s punk. Punk fans/bands are sick.

Scowl had a female lead singer with neon green hair and neon green eyebrows. She was such a punk singer it was insane. Screaming and yelling her lyrics. And it was a girl. It was so girl-boss of her, and I admired it so much. She asked people to dance when she started singing. I freaked out because I love dancing, so I grabbed my boyfriend’s hand and ran to the middle. She didn’t mean actual dancing. We were once again stuck in the middle of the pit. This time I was more prepared though and ran back to the front. I gawked at how cool she was. The band got videos of the front of the crowd and I’m in there just staring. 

The final opener was Jesus Piece. It was in the name of how insane they’d be. Another death metal band that was SO GOOD. I left that night with a greater appreciation for the genre. Their music was on another level loud and crazy, and the audience felt they had to up that energy as well. The show turned almost dangerous at that point. People were jumping off the stage at an alarming rate. I was busy worrying about the thrashing people for a while and completely forgot about those jumping off the stage. Someone landed on my head, and I immediately fell. Despite the crowd, Jesus Piece was incredible. Their logo shows a little bit of how sick they are: 

Finally, Show Me the Body was out around 11pm. The crowd got a little less dance insane and a little more emotional. While it’s punk music, there was a connection the audience made to the music. It was a communal love for crazy sounds. People were screaming the lyrics, they continued to jump offstage, but there was less of a pit. People were more close together dancing and jumping. It was almost beautiful to witness. Of course, the banjo sounded even more surreal in person. It was grotesque in the most brilliant way. It’s so hard to write about this concert because there was so much going on at once, and it was all indescribably awesome. They played not only music from their new album, but some of their top hits like ‘Camp Orchestra,’ ‘Madonna Rocket,’ and ‘Arcanum.’ One of the most notable of these was playing through a majority of ‘Camp Orchestra,’ cutting it off to play ‘Arcanum,’ and then finishing the rest of Camp Orchestra’s defining end.

The band Show Me the Body is a must see live, but be careful for the pit.