May 9th, 2025 (Gas Leak, Punxsutawney, and vs self @ No Fun, Troy, NY)

Been a hot minute since I've done a show review, since I've mostly been waiting for a big show to happen. Of all the shows to do a review of, this has definitely been the one that I've been the most excited for. I bought tickets for this show the day of them going on sale, and that is a decision I do not regret one bit. The initial opening act was going to be Senior Living, who are a local act that I've heard are quite good, but they dropped out of the show pretty last minute, and replacing them was my friends over in Gas Leak! I was absolutely ecstatic about this line-up change, since this is absolutely HUGE for my friend's band. Gas Leak are such a small band, and as I'm writing this, they only have a demo on SoundCloud out, so to get to see them opening for a band as massive as Vs Self (stylized "vs self") is pretty fucking huge! I'm going to try to keep this on the shorter end (but I know how much of a yapper I am) since I'm supposed to be working on two different final papers, one that is literally overdue ;(

Me and my college friends did a bunch of stuff the day before, and the day of the show, but all of that will be included in the sister blog I'll have up shortly after I write this (and a bit of the paper lol).

When we got to the show though, the last people on the planet I expected to see was my friends from back home who drove up here (we don't live far away at all, but like, still shocking) to surprise me and come see the show with me! This was really cool, but also very fucking scary, since I'm out to all of my college friends as Maxine, and quite a few of them only know me as such, so it was scary to hear my deadname for the first time in a hot minute up in the Capital Region! My best friend's girlfriend was the first person I saw, and she had said my deadname and I thought it was another one of my friend's voices for a second, since there was no shot it was her, so I was scared that someone was being an asshole, but no, it was just her! I'll eventually come out to them, but I didn't feel like doing that at a show that I wanted to have the best possible time at, so I just quickly ran up to my friends and told them "Hey, try not to refer to me by my name if you call me over, since my friends from back home are here". I felt really dumb, awkward, and self-centered for doing this, as I felt like I was shifting their focus toward keeping me in the closet, but I think I'm just overthinking things.

The openers were the aforementioned Gas Leak, which I was very excited to see once again, and they really keep getting better each time I see them! The vocalist came out covered in fake blood and a suit and tie, which was all set up the night before by a friend of mine and him. I like their stage antics and prop use (there was one of those toy horses with the stick, and I think it was called the "Glorse"). The vocals have continued to get better with each set, which is nice to see him experiment with different things. They covered Nirvana's "Aneurysm", which is a favorite of mine. Their set last night was probably their best yet, and the crowd response was quite cool to see! I can't wait to hear more things from them, and I hope that they gain a bit more traction from this!

Next up was Punxsutawney, who I hadn't really listened to previously, but my friend back home had heard a bit from them beforehand. Their sound is best described as a mixture of slowcore and post-rock, with a little bit of math rock thrown into the mix. They were honestly incredible, and their performance definitely made me wanna listen to their music. There were moments that felt incredibly large and was exactly what I like to hear from my favorite post-rock acts! I've always really wanted to see a post-rock band live, so this was a perfect opportunity (and I didn't even know it!). I really like the slowcore elements in their music too, as I've always loved the texturing and the overall chill vibe of slowcore, and these guys did it amazingly. There were times during the show I just had to close my eyes and be enveloped by the music. It made me feel things I wasn't expecting to feel that night, and I have to commend them for that. Their last song was a really long and magnificent moment of the show, and a definitely highlight. I was a bit upset at the amount of people talking over the music during the quieter sections, but was then immediately wowed by that conclusion. These guys rocked, and I would love to see them again, or bands like them, sometime in the future!

Finally, the main attraction, and the reason I bought tickets a couple months in advance! I'm not the biggest fan of this newer wave of midwest emo x screamo (or midwest screamo as I like to call it, but I've heard midwest emoviolence as well, and that's so much cooler of a term, but I didn't coin it!). However, I really like vs self, and even though they are really the ones who popularized this wave, I think they genuinely do modern midwest screamo the best. Their mixture of math rock, midwest emo, and screamo is a really amazing blend, and I knew it was going to be awesome in a live atmosphere. I knew a lot less of the lyrics than I thought I did, but I still could scream along to their three most popular cuts, which they all played back to back to back as the closer of the set. They had said they had two more songs (but you always know that it tends to be three when you're the headlining band and you haven't played your most popular song yet!). They played "Leave Everything", which might actually be my favorite by them, especially after their performance, "Yesterday by The Beatles Or: Imagine by Yoko Ono as Sung by John Lennon", and then left the stage and did an encore for "Mourn". A few of my friends were in the front screaming every word and sobbing, and I genuinely just felt their energy so much— I could tell this show meant a lot to them, especially my one friend, who we'll call 'K' for the sake of ease of differentiation. K was very excited for vs self, and honestly, she was my main reason for even getting into them in the first place. I had heard "Yesterday" before, and I didn't really think that much of it, but since her being such a big fan caused me to give them another try, and I ended up really liking what I was hearing, and they've only grown on me since then. Their performance was honestly one of my favorites that I've seen period. Maybe it was me being pretty familiar with their music, and then seeing them execute it wonderfully in-person, but I genuinely think they did an amazing job. The energy was all there, and they had great stage presence. I appreciated them shouting out queer peeps (I mean, their lead guitarist/vocalist is non-binary, so that makes sense) as an obviously queer person myself. Overall, they met my high expectations, maybe even exceeded them.

I think what really made the night for me was seeing all of my friends, both new and old, together in a live music setting, all listening and enjoying music that we live for. This was a near-perfect end to my semester (granted it's not over yet, I still got a final and some papers to write, but it's essentially over!), and a nice send-off to my friends that I mostly won't be able to see until Fall semester ;(

The only thing, or I guess two things, I can complain about are that I felt a bit anxious that I would accidentally get outed to my friends back home, and while I don't think they'd take it poorly, it would start a domino effect that I'm not ready to take on yet, and also it's NOT something I want to explain on a night that's supposed to be good. That didn't happen, but the anxiety was definitely there. The other thing to complain about was this drunk bitch (which I don't like to call people, but that's what she was) who kept messing around with her friend and shoving into me for no reason. It's fine to do that in a push pit, but at that point in time, I was on the sides, and she kept shoving into me. Obviously, I pushed her back thinking she was just trying to shove me around like anyway would, and instead of having a shove-off, she decided to scratch at my neck for NO FUCKING REASON. I don't really want to drink at shows like this, especially a show that I was this excited for, and this is the reason for it. Drunk people are stupid, and while it's fun to get drunk, if you are causing harm to others, you need to either slow down, or stop!!!

Other than that, I had an amazing night, and I am very glad everything went very smoothly! Probably won't be going to too many shows, as I don't have a mode of transportation anymore (I'm working on getting my driver's license still), I'd only be going to shows I really want to see/my friends will definitely be going.

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