Last weekend, Chop Suey opened it’s doors to a sold old, all-ages night filled with delightful pop-punk splendor. New York duo Diet Cig brought with them an enthusiastic Scottish four-set, Spook School, as well as local outfit Great Grandpa.
Diet Cig
Diet Cig is Alex Luciano on vocal/guitar and Noah Bowman on drums….or are they? The self-descried “slop-pop” two-some debuted a new lineup this tour, adding two members to their performance for the first time - Karli Helm of San Francisco’s Plush and Anna Cory of Scotland’s Spook School (this tour’s opener) on bass. The new additions were exciting for Luciano to bounce energy off of, but with Bowman in the far back and Luciano mobile and controlling center stage, there was really no taking your attention off of her for the entire show.
Alex Luciano is a charmer on stage. Her smile is infectious and she never stands still! I lost count of her high-kicks well into their second song. The majority of tunes performed came from their 2017 release Swear I’m Good At This. Diet Cig opened with album’s first track “Sixteen”…a song with a slow buildup that turns into a radical belter-of-a-tune. All of their songs are quite intimate for Luciano – focusing on her past experiences with dating and the lonesomeness of finding yourself. While some moments are heavily emotional (there were definitely tears shed by some fans in the front row during their set), the spunky side of the band comes out in full force live. Luciano wears sparkles on her cheeks at each show, prepping herself for the night in the same way a football player adheres grease on theirs. She knows a Diet Cig show is going to be a fun time, because she is going to make it a fun experience for everyone to enjoy.
The theme of the night besides fun was inclusivity. At many times Luciano explained to the crowd that they were so thankful for everyone to be there, and singled out anyone identifying in the LGBTQ community and told them “thank you for taking up space at our show.” They further explained that they really cared about the personal space of each person at their show and encouraged the crowd to speak up if they every felt uncomfortable. That being said, they wanted everyone to have a fun time, and asked those who wanted to dance, to do it, but to respect the space of those around them. Following this mindset, Luciano did check to make sure a group of people were okay near the center of the crowd after a particularly eruptive part of the performance brought some pushing and light moshing. After a thumbs-up confirmation from the crowd that all was well, Luciano twirled off her worry and powered through the rest of the track.
Luciano edged closer to the crowd the longer the night progressed. Upon their finale track, “Harvard,” Luciano jumped onto Noah Bowman’s drumset and finished the song with another explosive kick. All smiles, the chords from Semisonic’s “Closing Time” were played as the band sang the iconic 90s chorus “I know who I want to take me home” a few times while saying their goodbyes.
Great Grandpa
Just the night before, Great Grandpa had to cancel their set. Illness had taken a few of the band members, including vocalist Alex Menne, whom had her wisdom removed in an emergency procedure hours before taking the Chop Suey stage, and also guitarist Patrick Goodwin, who was struggling with diarrhea. The band made the joke that they had “literally gone through shit to be able to perform tonight.”
Despite all of the obstacles facing Great Grandpa earlier in the day, the group dominated the stage without distraction. Menne rolled around on the stage floor and also embraced the crowd while belting through their power pop ballads. Goodwin never flinched while singing backing vocals and thrusting his guitar.
The Spook School
I wasn’t sure what to expect when Spook School took the stage – I only knew they were Scottish and that my friend who attended the show with me was at the show just to see their set. They burst out with some properly punk anthems and thick accents were present as expected. Lyrically the band tackles subjects uniquely them, the song “Binary,” challenges social normality with the ending chant of “I am bigger than a hexadecimal!” Drummer Niall McCamley ripped his shirt off, exposing a chest with taped x’s across each nipple exclaiming that sometimes the band likes to sing about queer concepts and to get ready for their next one about boys kissing boys!
The evening, filled with retaliation and expression, had no better place than performing at Chop Suey in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Radical decisions for the city of Seattle were forged in this community, and it has been the location of the most LGBTQ+ friendly establishments in the area for some time. These bands, this venue, and this neighborhood all melded harmoniously as they came together last weekend.
