Last Saturday, packed into a South Philly basement stood roughly 100 of the city's most in-the-know music fans. Ranging in age from a little under 20 to a little over 20, they waited in this hot, smoky box of a room for garage rockers Be Your Own Pet. BYOP, a foursome of Nashville punks, specializes more in creating a great show than creating great music. Their songs are nothing spectacular and at times indecipherable from one another. The appeal lies in their unrelenting youthful energy. It was clear they felt at home, fittingly, at a house show.
Less of a proper venue and more of a room with some mics set up, the unannounced show - the address for which was secretly e-mailed to only a handful of people - allowed no separation between the band and the fans. The stage wasn't elevated and when their sets were over, the bands just walked right into the crowd (a significant portion of which was made up of the other bands' members). Singers shouted their lyrics right into the faces of the fans in the front row who were just inches from the microphone.
As would be expected with a converted basement, the acoustics left a lot to be desired, but it's doubtful anyone in attendance cared. Openers Women and Vincent Black Shadow screamed and thrashed their way through their sets, creating a high-energy atmosphere for the headliners. Be Your Own Pet is often compared to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, both in the tone of their music and in the energy of their respective front women, Jemina Pearl Abegg and Karen O.
Abegg's stage presence is remarkable - she's like a living, breathing explosion of shrieking, irreverent confidence. Dressed in a gray t-shirt and waist-high jeans held up by red suspenders, she traded barbs with the audience and her band mates, toeing the line between playful banter and drunken complaining. The set list was composed on the spot, and they played for a breakneck 40 minutes. Unlike the more polished studio versions of their songs, the live renditions of fan-favorites like "Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle" were barrages of exuberant noise. Abegg would scream with her legs planted firmly, her hand in the air and her eyes wide open. The crowd ate it up, jumping and moshing around.
It's hard to imagine them having the same impact at a larger venue, which presents a problem for BYOP. Either their audience expands and they play larger venues, likely losing much of their energy along the way, or they're trapped playing to 80 kids in a basement each night. While they might like to get bigger as the years go on, those in the house show scene wouldn't want to see them any other way.
