By Josh Hughes
This week at the Wednesday Night Concert Series on November 8, two of Bellingham’s rowdiest punk bands will be rocking out the Underground Coffeehouse. The Wednesdays, a “blues punk” group indebted to the ‘90s riot grrl acts, will play alongside Thee Unsound, an equally lo-fi, DIY and garage punk group.
Composed of Vanessa Moreno, Kayla Daly, Mars Clark and Maddy Holup, The Wednesday’s released their debut album, “MOOD”, this past July. Even with its playful paper cut-out album art, the band does not spend any time sugaring up any part of their sound. While their vocals and harmonies are gorgeous, the first two songs, respectively titled “YFMU” and “YFMU Pt. II” (which both stand for “you fucked me up”), place The Wednesday’s in line with the grittiest of Sleater-Kinney’s discography.
“And I just wanna die!!” goes the cathartic breakdown of album highlight “State of Nature”. The same song concludes with the line “the president doesn’t care about your baby”. The Wednesdays write no-BS lyrics that feel instantly relatable and completely genuine. The band runs through songs that deal with gender dynamics, crappy relationships, low end jobs and the never-diminishing relevance of figuring one’s self out.
Musically, the band relies on surf inspired garage rock, built around a typical guitar-bass-drum arrangement. Much of the band’s individuality comes through, beyond their lyrics, with their sometimes sung, sometimes screamed harmonies that flutter in and out of the lead melody. There’s a scream halfway through “Adult Stuff” that sums up The Wednesdays’ unapologetic sass and emotional potency in one cathartic yawp.
Thee Unsound, who will open the Wednesday night show, exist in a similar spectrum as The Wednesdays, but they take the intensity of punk to another level. Made up of Casey Proctor, Anthony Navarro and Chris Williams, the trio got their start playing at the Make.Shift’s Valentine’s Day Cover Show pretending to be The Hives. After that, they wanted to keep making music together, hence Thee Unsound came about. Having released a self-titled EP this past August, the band is rowdy as ever and ready to play new music on a short West Coast tour this November.
Their sound, which fluctuates between the post-punk dread of Joy Division and Wire to a sunnier (albeit still wildly distorted) strut, makes Thee Unsound one of the most energetic bands from Bellingham right now. Songs like their EP highlight “Go Slow” burst with intricate guitar parts and a propulsive backbeat that play around Proctor’s haunting vocals. Proctor and Williams both handle vocal duties, adding to the versatility of their sound. While their style certainly comes from the broad umbrella term that is “garage rock”, Thee Unsound are still honing in on their identity as a band, refreshingly playing a variety of sounds that all work excellently together.
As with all the Wednesday Night Concerts, this show will be free and open to the public. Each band will play for roughly 45 minutes, and the show will start promptly at 7 p.m. Next week come back for the last scheduled show of the quarter, Iffy Comma and Pop Secret.