Sainthood Reps represent good punk at Brooklyn’s Union Pool
Sainthood Reps killed their show. Honestly one of the best I have seen in a long time. For context, I showed up to the concert a little begrudgingly— a friend of mine had offered me free tickets to see The Talking Heads, which I had to refuse due to this prior commitment. I walked in through the doors of Union Pool completely prepared to do my job and leave unchanged.
Throughout the course of the night, this rang viscerally untrue. To start, literally, was the rather long list of opening bands: Carrying, Nite Sports, and Creeks — all of which were excellently placed choices. Carrying and Creeks were sonically similar, both composed of young members pushing an agenda of garage rock and shoegaze, though Creeks did teeter slightly in the realm of modern emo. As Carrying kicked off the show, the lead singer was conversational with the crowd and funny, breaking through the imaginary third wall that often exists between musicians on a stage and audience members. Nite Sports came second, with a whopping six members. The guys in the band dressed the part- regardless of the music they were visually interesting. As they began to play it was clear, this band knew how to rock. They screamed leftist ideology and played together in a way that was both chaotic and cohesive— I may have liked them more than the Talking Heads (don’t tell David Byrne).
Then, the big moment arrived. The last opener broke down the stage and on came Sainthood Reps. The October 10 show was also doubling as a release party for their new album Dull Bliss. The band continued off Nite Sports’ mix of chaotic and cohesive, also toeing that line well. Immediately upon the members stepping onto stage a kind of genuineness was apparent. These were the kind of guys you would see around the skate park, types from New York or California or maybe Austin, Texas—good natured but also have probably been banned from a bar or two in their past. What I’m trying to get at is that the members truly represented punk. This was clear in the music too. As the songs amped up, all the members (besides the seated drummer) jumped and contorted onstage, creating a high energy show. Musically, the band was incredibly solid, belting out a semi-genre fluid mix of punk, shoegaze, and hardcore. At one point, a member of the audience grabbed a rouge mic and hijacked the show — yelling, moshing and swinging the wired microphone. The members on stage laughed and cheered him on, embracing the non-comfortist experience.
I think I jumped around and danced for most of the concert, which I don’t usually do while holding expensive camera gear. However, the show Sainthood Reps put on was too fun to not get involved. The energy from the crowd was visceral — helter-skelter and exciting. All the bands on stage knew how to interact with a crowd, and put on a live show that made me forget about my previous woes. If I am presented with another opportunity to see Sainthood Reps again, I will clear my schedule to take it.
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