Chicago’s infamous DIY punk scene thrashes through the city constantly – unashamed of the grime, grit, and fire that lies woven within the community. So much of the greatest music of this scene is the young punks lit up with rage, societal nonconformity, & political unrest. This is my love letter to 3 of those bands.
GLAD: THE COMMANDERS OF SHE-MALE DOUCHEBAG SLUDGE-VIOLENCE (@glad.violence)
Rain Lopez, Liz Covalt, and MJ Ultra conduct the wizardry that is GLAD: the she-male-fronted, douchebag sludge-violence band that transformed my connection with the scene forever. I met GLAD in an aforementioned “shitty basement,” dripping in other people’s sweat, and writing bullshit on any blank space I could find on the wall. I carved my initials into the interworkings of the low ceiling while I avoided making conversation with the various bassists in the room who dated my friends. But there was something instantly commanding about the way that GLAD started their set. MJ threw herself into the crowd while she sang, Rain tore it up on the drums, and Liz was a killer on the bass. But perhaps even more endearing than that, my friends and I smoked a cigarette alongside MJ in the backyard.
The duality of the Chicago punk & hardcore scene had never been more apparent to me than in this very moment. I got to watch these three people absolutely destroy a room, lighting something inside of me ablaze that would lead me to want to cement my place in the local scene forever. But more than that, the scene became approachable to me. Something pinched in my brain, and I realized that there is no imaginary posterchild that represents who you’re supposed to be when you go to these gigs. I didn’t need to bring my shitty boyfriend with me cause I thought it made me look cooler. I could come to a show after a 9-to-5 and melt away into the tinnitus-inducing trash music that I loved, and I didn’t need to do anything else except exist. And after almost an entire year of living in this post-transcendent aftermath, I finally got the chance to sit down with GLAD to talk about this, the scene, and the future of it.
When asked about what made all of them feel so connected to the scene, Ultra exhaled. “With GLAD, I feel like I get to be a bad person. You know? Like, when we’re playing for 20 minutes, and I get to let all that anger and disgust and hatred out. If you’re in the front, I might hit you, I might kick you, I might spit in your face, right? And in this moment, I don’t matter! But neither do any of you.”
We discussed how “punk behavior” is integral to the scene – the ability to jump, kick, mosh, and scream are all necessary parts of the experience. The big venues of Chicago don’t welcome that, and the endearingly shitty basements that do usually end up closing. We then started to talk about how many of our favorite nights were spent in these venues, and how modern spots like Casa Cafe (@casacafeshows) have quickly become the new ringleaders.
“I think punk used to live in shitty basements,” Lopez said. “And with any luck, it’s just a transitional phase. I do think that it will come back. That’s what’s always been so special about Chicago.”
CHICAGOLAND’S BUG STOMPERS: YABAI! CHICAGOLAND’S BUG STOMPERS: YABAI! (@yabai_punk)
YABAI: A versatile piece of Japanese slang meaning anything from “sick” to “WHOA!”, secondarily referred to as THE FUTURE OF CHICAGO PUNK!
YABAI is a local punk band that makes self-proclaimed “evil music,” consisting of frontman Jesse Vasel, his brother Jaden Vasel on the drums, and friends Austin Martinez and Elian Gonzalez, both on guitar.
It’s confirmed: Lightning DOES strike twice! I first discovered YABAI in the same basement I found GLAD. What’s so much fun about YABAI is how apparent it was that we were all witnessing the future of the scene – spiky hair, killer style, and stage presence that could light a room on fire.
YABAI’s music is hardcore, it’s punk, it’s quintessential rage. YABAI delivers, and the entire crowd responds: they mosh, they stomp, and they scream. This band is a wicked force of passion and young rage.
“We want to trick [non-punks] into thinking we’re like, not evil. Like really really cool,” Jesse said. “Then they come to the show and see like the chaos and it’s like, oh, what the fuck? But then they like it. That’s what we want to happen.”
YABAI is that in a nutshell! An unexpected meteorite of hardcore morals, vibes, and demeanor. These four come together to create something very special, something that thrives off the energy of a bunch of no-good kids going crazy in a dimly lit basement. *THAT* is what the Chicago scene is about, and as a fan, I couldn’t not talk about how crucial that is to the punk scene in our interview.
Before they reworked their Spotify, their songs CORPO and WAKE UP CALL were in my ‘Most Listened To.’ I loved how listening to their studio recordings felt like I was at a show even if I was actually on the Red Line, and one of the things I love about the scene is how much you wish you were there when you’re anywhere else.
We spoke again about the state of Chicago DIY venues. “This shit is run by hardcore kids, for hardcore kids, and it’s just like a pure scene,” Jesse stated. “These venue owners aren’t some outsiders, they’re just grown up hardcore kids.”
YABAI consists of hardcore kids who love hardcore more than anything.
FLY THE CHI-TOWN FLAG: IT’S FOUR STARS! (@fourstarsil)
I actually met the guys of Four Stars in a slightly more established non-basement: Beat Kitchen. The Chicago-based Pop-Punk band is made up of lead singer Aida Ahmed, drummer Mikey Williams, and guitarist Danny Escobar.
I found them after I tuned into their soundcheck after an interview with a separate artist – they played Fall Out Boy to get their ball bearings aligned before their set which immediately perked my ears up. We connected through social media, and I’ve had the greatest fun sharing how crucial pop-punk has been to our lives with each other. What I love about Four Stars is how quickly they turn into “Four Stars,” in the sense that it takes mere seconds for them to turn into the wickedly talented performers that they have built alongside each other. They are funny, they’re fresh, and they’re raw – they love to wear their hearts on their sleeves with no shame at all. They talk about break-ups, relationship problems, and their gripes with this crazy, crazy world all in the form of music. They are unbelievably them as well as unbelievably punk in a city that has so many wonderful sounds.
But it is in these bars and local venues that they become most themselves. Even their name is a tribute to the iconic Chicago flag, featuring blue and white stripes with four bright red stars in the middle. These 3 grew up on the scene with famous pop-punk bands like Yellowcard, Blink-182, and Sum 41, which turned them into the musicians they are today. They are unabashedly Chicago punk, living off the energy of the locals and all those who love to go crazy to emotionally distraught lyrics. “Four Stars” is Chicago through and through, and it would be an understatement to say that Ahmed, Williams, and Escobar are amazing examples of the endlessly giving Chicago DIY scene.
