Don’t be like the dudebro predator in Resilient’s new “I’m Onto You” video
Scrolling through my Facebook feed earlier today, I came across a story my friend posted about a dude who was waiting behind her at a convenience store this morning, making lewd kissy noises, touching her back. Which, first of all, gross. What grown-ass man behaves like this? The answer is astonishingly simple: so, so very many of us. And it’s a problem.
Today is International Women’s Day, but it shouldn’t just be about a hashtag or (for us musically inclined folks) hastily mixing a relative handful of women-forward artists into a playlist and then moving on. It should be about actively listening to stories like this from our sisters and reflecting on them, internalizing them. Checking our egos and the whole “not all men” nonsense at the door, being aware of our behavior and actively striving to freaking do better all around the calendar year.
Which leads us to the latest video from Philly hard rock four-piece Resilient, who perform at Underground Arts tonight at a benefit for the Crossroads Women’s Center. In it, we find ourselves at a raucous house party gig to the tune of “I’m Onto You,” a rager from Resilient’s 2016 record Imagining Things. But as the band plays on, there’s an uncomfortable undercurrent via your stereotypical loud, red-solo-cup-pounding, backwards-white-ballcap dudebro who harasses pretty much every woman around him, getting the cold shoulder (deservingly so).
As singer-guitarist Erin Fox tells us over email, “The song describes the manipulation of women in the entertainment industry. The video in conjunction with the lyrics serves as a reminder that predators come in all forms and costumes.”
Indeed, the dudebro turns frighteningly predatorial, slipping a couple pills into one a beer and trying to get one of the women to drink up before being spotted, called out and being crowdsurfed to the front to meet his just demise. And while its a good life-lesson on the literal level, it works as a metaphor for the music world as well. Dudes, don’t be that guy in any remote way, shape or form.
Watch the Jay Yachetta-directed video below, check out a behind-the-scenes gallery from the video shoot by photographer Mike Arrison at Resilient’s Facebook page and get more information on tonight’s benefit show at the XPN Concert Calendar.