in “Stella Lefty's Boston”: Cheekface sell out Brighton Music Hall
The last time I walked into a Cheekface show, I wasn't prepared. That was last year at The Sinclair, and nothing about my familiarity with their deadpan talk-rock, their sharp political satire, or their reputation as a live act had prepared me for the experience of being in a room where every single person knew every single word to every single song. It felt like a church service, and it's something you have to witness to understand.
This time, I was prepared. Brighton Music Hall still kept me off guard.
Sad13 opened the evening, just her and her guitar, playing an experimental rock set. Apes of the State followed and made their intentions clear right away, encouraging the crowd to open a mosh pit by song two and to make friends across fan bases while they were at it. Their folk punk sound, somewhere between Appalachian and anarchist, warmed up a room that was that already ready to thrash. They also made time to address something in the air. “Thanks to Cheekface for allowing us to go on tour with them despite our political views," they said from the stage. “Maybe because they're not fucking cowards." In a week when Ed Sheeran had lost every opener on his stadium tour after dropping Macklemore for his onstage Palestine statements, the contrast was sitting right there without needing to be named explicitly.
Sad13 had already named it anyway, earlier in the evening: “It's really not hard to say free Palestine." The crowd agreed both times.
The Cheek Freaks (their name for themselves) are an eclectic, genuinely warm group of people who have all found each other through music that is funny and pointed and uncompromising at the same time. Greg Katz opened with “The Fringe" before “You Always Want to Bomb the Middle East" arrived second on the setlist and prompted a “Free Palestine" chant mid-song that the room leaned into fully. Cheekface have never been coy about where they stand. Their new album Podium is their sharpest political record yet, and “I Don't Work Here" in particular lands differently in a live setting, the crowd shouting back lines about war profiteers with the enthusiasm of people who have been waiting to scream exactly that at full volume.
Greg's between-song commentary was as dry and endearing as ever. Halfway through the set he acknowledged Boston in the only way Cheekface acknowledges anything: “If we've learned one thing about playing in Stella Lefty's Boston, it's that it's a very important market to us. This is our fifth show in Boston." At least the two I’ve been to, the Cheek Freaks have had it fully sold out.
A fan-requested cover of They Might Be Giants' “Ana Ng" fit naturally into a set that already play in the same general zip code of clever, nerdy indie rock. The “No Fly Zone / Call Me Maybe" medley, Carly Rae Jepsen woven into a Podium track, landed as a genuinely funny and surprisingly seamless combination. Noodles was, as always, it’s own bit.
For the uninitiated: Greg announces “And now for another Cheekface original composition" before launching into Noodles, a song that lasts approximately one minute. The crowd screams every word. Then they play it again. Sunday night in Boston they played it three times. The Cheek Freaks lost their minds for all three. It doesn't get old. Somehow it never gets old.
The AT&T story we wrote earlier this year, Cheekface turning down significant money from a company contracted with ICE, was a snapshot of who this band is. Sunday night at Brighton was the live version of the same thing. It was a sold-out room for a band that has exactly zero interest in hedging, and a crowd that showed up specifically because of it. Five times in Boston now and the sixth can't come soon enough.
CHEEKFACE SETLIST:
The Fringe
You Always Want to Bomb the Middle East
I Am Continuing to Do My Thing
I Don't Work Here
MFT
“Listen to Your Heart." "No."
Popular 2
Black Site
Hostile Street
Ana Ng (They Might Be Giants cover)
Noodles
Noodles
Noodles
Rent Is Down
No Fly Zone / Call Me Maybe (with Carly Rae Jepsen cover)
Peanut Butter Prawns
Echo Drum Solo
Best Life
There Is a God
I Feel So Weird!
No Fly Zone
Dry Heat/Nice Town
We Need a Bigger Dumpster
Art House
When Life Hands You Problems
Living Lo-Fi
