After hearing much hype about Perfect Pussy, a Syracuse-based 4 piece punk band, I was excited and eager to see them Thursday night at Kings Barcade. Without looking too deep into what Pitchfork or Rolling Stones had to say, I went in with an unbiased opinion and came out rather disappointed.
The good: Perfect Pussy seems to have a lot of potential. The music itself isn’t that unique but they definitely have punk attitudes. The lead vocalist, Meredith Graves, was carefree and engaging with the crowd, while the other members supported her through their energetic punk sound. When I listened to their demo, I Have Lost All Desire For Feeling, the lyrics had the perfect amount of distortion and everything worked really well together.
The bad: Perfect Pussy sounded nothing like they did on the demo. I’m fairly certain it was the way they were mixed because all I could hear was drum and bass. Grave’s vocals were far too quiet, even when she turned up the amplifier she was running the vocals through. Throughout their whole set I never found myself enjoying the music because the sound was so off.
When they do come back to Raleigh I will try and see them again to get a second opinion. Hopefully they gain more experience as a band, and realize how important it is to communicate with the sound engineer. Overall, I’m glad I went and wish the band the best of luck in their future career.