It was like someone had lit a Molotov cocktail and threw it into a pit of firecrackers on the Union Transfer floor the second Pinkshift ripped into their first song. The Baltimore five piece understood the assignment, they performed with such ferocity you would think they mastered live music. Pinkshift was having an amazing time and it showed.
Pinkshift | photo by Megan Matuzak for WXPN
Ashrita Kumar commanded the stage, knowing when to be playful and when to let the freak flag fly. Her voice specifically could knock anyone off their feet. After playing “Get Out of My Face,” Pinkshift played two “quarantine songs,” the second of which was called “Crabapple”. Teeing up the track Kumar asked for someone, anyone, to give the track a better name. Philly did not disappoint.
“Young burns?…Go birds?” Kumar said. The crowd erupted with applause. They played “i’m going to call my therapist on you” next.
Angel Du$t followed, introducing a pacing, more lofi vibe to the crowd. The band’s setlist worked its way up from southern rock flavored desert riffs to fast-paced, tempo driven frenzies that opened up the pit. Their sound is that intangible weed, alien, gaze-rock amalgam that a select group of bands like DIIV inhabit. This is spot on, based on the surrealistic art that has accompanied Yak, A Collection of Truck Songs, which Angel Du$t played songs off of.
Lead singer, Justice Tripp, asked everyone if they wanted to hear what he wanted to be when he grew up and dove into “Stepping Stone”. For their last song they brought up Missy Dabice of Mannequin Pussy.
Angel Du$t and Missy Dabice of Mannequin Pussy | photo by Megan Matuzak for WXPN
Mannequin Pussy set up, tuned up and walked off stage as the lights dimmed to a cool blue. Over the speakers the first couple bars of Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)” came through. The crowd recognized the song immediately, and word by word the anticipation was thick. Now at the end of their tour, Mannequin Pussy ran out onto the Union Transfer stage ready to take their victory lap.
This U.S. tour, which spanned over a month and a half, just about came to a close last night (they play the final date tonight at Bowery Ballroom). Missy took several opportunities to thank Pinkshift and Angel Du$t not only for being on the road with them but for loaning their equipment to Mannequin Pussy after their van and trailer were stolen.
No surprise, a “F*ck Ohio” chant from the crowd stirred up between songs. Also two, maybe three bras were flung at the stage and landed at Missy’s feet.
“Romantic” and “Control” were the first two songs, almost like a book ends between Perfect, released earlier this year, and 2016’s Romantic, the album that really caught on like wildfire. That’s not to say their 2014 self-titled didn’t get any play time — “Clue Juice”, “Meat Slave” and “Pissdrinker” were all there. Mannequin Pussy and the crowd thrashing and singing their hearts out and lungs out of their bodies.