Show Me The Body’s Eclectic Punk and Hardcore Showcase Comes to Austin
On Wednesday, October 7, Show Me the Body stopped in downtown Austin at the tail end of their Alone Together tour, bringing Truck Violence, Lip Critic, and Whispers to The Mohawk. Set between Weekends 1 and 2 of the Austin City Limits festival, the show drew a thinner crowd than you would typically see for a stacked lineup, but that meant more room for a bigger pit, with plenty of people still to buffer running stage dives. And with the weather finally cooling a bit in Austin, it was a welcome change from the sweaty, stifling pits fans have endured since May.
TRUCK VIOLENCE
First up was the Montréal band Truck Violence, a band that Show Me the Body’s frontman Julian Cashwan Pratt shouted out in a recent GQ interview: “I really love Truck Violence. They're so weird they make me feel not weird.”
It was a perplexing mix of sounds, sludge, post-hardcore, and dark folk, paired with a frenetic stage show that felt as if they were all trying to jump out of their own skin. Despite the crowd's energy rising in anticipation of an evening of stage diving and pit dancing, they moved between bursts of raw energy and poetic, slow moments backed by folky banjo. Though they are fresh off the debut of their fully self-produced album The weathervane is my body, they were a commanding opener that will inevitably join the ranks of other experimental post-hardcore bands.
LIP CRITIC
Next was Lip Critic, returning to Austin for a second time in a handful of months. When I reviewed The Brooklyn electropunk’s June show, I was campaigning hard to get everyone I talk about music with to listen to their new album Theft World, and that hasn’t changed. Lip Critic is my favorite new-to-me band of 2026, and finding out they were added to the Show Me the Body tour this Fall made me feel FOMO about missing their upcoming no barricade show at NYC’s Webster Hall.
Lip Critic’s stage show was captivating, and you need to see it in person to catch the band's movements and facial expressions onstage. Plenty of bands connect with their audience and seem thrilled to be onstage performing, but Lip Critic makes you feel like they want you to enjoy their show and trust them. It’s a little bit of everything: punk, EDM, hip-hop, hardcore, and synth-pop. If you haven’t listened to them, check them out. It may take a few listens, but it will get into your brain and stay.
WHISPERS
Whispers, the self-designated “Bangkok Evilcore,” brought a heavier, more intense set. While the audience opened up a pit early in the evening, the crowd surfing was mostly restrained, with some acrobatics in the pit. When Whispers took the stage, the pit filled up, beer flew, and the speed and force of the stage dives ramped up multiple notches. For fans waiting to lose it, the metallic hardcore set delivered.
SHOW ME THE BODY
Experimental NYC hardcore band Show Me the Body rounded out the night by continuing the hardcore energy, with shifts throughout the set. Lead vocalist and founder Julian Cashwan Pratt is known for his charged stage presence and DIY electric banjo. The band is also known for intense pits, which may have been less intense this evening due to the venue layout, with multi-tiered viewing; fans who wanted to watch but not participate had many “safe” spots to view the show from.
The intensity ramped up from Whispers and continued during SMTB with Pratt encouraging the audience to do what they needed to do to get it all out. The set mostly consisted of new songs from Alone Together, with a few older ones mixed in. New songs “Eat for Peace”, “No God”, “Dance in the USA” and “Do What’s Right (Happy)” were all met with the energy of a crowd pissed off about the bullshit in the world right now.
Sometimes you go to a show where the headliner is indistinguishable from the support acts, with sounds so similar, the evening becomes one long set in one genre. You will see people leaving early, after they get their fill of one sound. This evening was not one of those times; it was one of my favorite shows this year, four sets of bands merging experimental, unpredictable, and traditional sounds. SMTB is at the end of the tour, with only a few US dates left, but if you’re in NYC, don’t miss the no-barricade show at Webster Hall.