It’s a beautiful sight to see: a moshpit at a music festival. Even better when it’s during an ACAB anthem called “Pigs Is Pigs.” That’s the fierce energy that Mannequin Pussy brought to their afternoon set at Kilby Block Party, held over three days at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City, Utah this past weekend.
The sweaty enthusiasm was noticed by the band members themselves. “Festivals are a very particular brand of chaos so I don’t think your mind ever really catches up to what your body’s doing,” singer Marisa “Missy” Dabice told Uproxx over the phone after returning to Philadelphia from mountainous SLC. “I felt moments of real elation to be at this incredibly curated festival and to see that people were actually really excited to see us.”
I’m a believer that this elation can be felt at every music festival, if every music festival had at least one punk band on the bill. OK, maybe not EVERY festival — we don’t need another Pete Seeger incident when Turnstile takes the stage at the Newport Folk Festival — but, like, 95 percent of them. Replace the sleepy singer-songwriter playing to an exhausted, sun-soaked crowd with a band like Mannequin Pussy, and everyone’s stamina meter will be replenished.
“I feel like as a performer, you have a responsibility to make them forget about the fact that they’ve already been hearing live music for going on 72 hours,” Dabice said. “In this case [at Kilby], there was just already so much energy in the crowd that we didn’t have to feel inspired too much or anything.” She added, “I think punk fans definitely bring energy and catharsis to a festival where maybe you need to be woken up a little bit for the rest of your day.”
Punk bands are a natural fit for festivals. Have you ever seen a poster for a hardcore show? It’s like a mini-Coachella every night at your nearest VFW hall or indie venue (if you don’t have a ticket to see Drain, Drug Church, Gel, Magnitude, and Restraining Order on tour this spring, it’s not too late). They’re also used to playing tight, short sets, something Dabice, along with co-band members drummer Kaleen Reading, bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford, guitarist Maxine Steen, and multi-instrumentalist Carolyn Haynes, take seriously.
“The worst thing you can do at a festival is go over your set time,” she said. “I think that’s original sin number one for festivals. It’s just not respecting that because it fucks up everything. It’s a cruel thing to do, so you have to be really aware of just exactly how much time you need to be able to express what you would normally with a longer set and distill it into a shorter amount of time.”
A high-energy, punk-leaning festival set is not only fun for the crowd (there were so many smiling faces in and around the pit during MP’s self-described “cute, very aggressive” set), but it’s also beneficial for the artists. When asked if there’s a noticeable bump in streaming plays and social media followers following a festival set, Dabice replied, “Yes, I would say almost immediately.”
It’s great that punk-focused festivals exist, but the people who attend Sound and Fury and The Fest probably already know Mannequin Pussy, Joyce Manor, and Scowl. It’s important for oft-overlooked punk bands to play before unfamiliar audiences, too; it’s how to grow a fanbase and a culture. So if you’re a booker or know a booker or know a guy who knows a girl who’s third cousins with a booker, demand that they add Anxious, Soul Glo, Mindforce, Meet Me @ the Altar, Pinkshift, and/or Home Is Where to their festival. Hozier will be just fine playing 85 festivals instead of 84 festivals this year. Maybe hold off on booking Mannequin Pussy, though — at least until their new album is out.
“At this point, we don’t necessarily want to be playing live because we’re just sitting on all these new songs and a new set that we are excited about playing but can’t just yet,” Dabice said. “At the same time, we’re not turning down certain things that make sense for us to have some fun.” Next up for MP: New Jersey’s Adjacent Fest on the same day as Paramore, PUP, Jeff Rosenstock, the Linda Lindas, Drug Church, and Gel. Now that’s more like it.