Mischief Brew live from Sunnyvale
Photo by Jeff Moses
Mischief Brew lead singer Erik Petersen definitely had himself a happy birthday weekend capping off the fun with a sold out show at Brooklyn’s newest venue, Sunnyvale in Bushwick on Saturday night. The show was Sunnyvale’s first ever as they are still in the soft opening phase of their operation and it was moved the brand new venue from The Good Room in Greenpoint with only one day left before the show.
It was a serendipitous move for Erik and the band because the shift in venue had the show relocated to the same building that they recorded their debut solo record Smash The Windows in.
It may have been the venue’s soft opening but there was nothing soft about what was going on inside the mosh pit as what seemed like 200 punks packed it in in front of the stage to celebrate with Erik and sing along to tunes like “Nomads Revolt,” “This is not for Children,” and “Roll Me Through The Gates of Hell.”
Happy birthday to Erik Petersen.
Photo by Jeff Schaer – Moses
The 40 minute set seemed way too short for the hero’s welcome which Mischief Brew received from their New York Faithful. I personally would have been happy to hear them play through their entire catalog and I’m sure many who were in attendance would agree.
The energy in front of the stage was completely out of control with waves of moshers and crowd surfers passing through intermittently and making it so that there was nowhere within 15 feet of the stage that was safe for standing. There was so much thrashing about that no matter how well balanced you were you’d have no choice but to join the crowd of people bumping into each other. It was just a beautiful pile of sweaty punks shouting, dancing, and reveling in the explosive show that Mischief Brew delivered.
I was late to the Mischief Brew party, I’ve only been a fan since Record Store day 2014 which was the first time I encountered their tunes at an unpermitted Under The Bridge Folk Festival in Phoenix, Arizona. Petersen played that show solo acoustic and had a 75 person chorus of crusties singing along.
At that point I was part of the Phoenix anarchist scene and it’s interesting too come back upon music at different points in your life and see where giving it a good listen will take you. Mischief Brew was the sort of band I definitely associated that part of my life even after catching Petersen at the Grand Victory in Brooklyn in December.
For me music has always had the uncanny ability to bring me right back to a specific time and place and flood my psyche with memories of specific people. But what’s so amazing about the spectacle of live music is that it never has to be delivered in the same way that it was written and recorded.
A Mischief Brew set for me could easily become a sad remembrance of relationships long since broken in the dusty streets of a musky Southwestern City and friends I who I dearly miss there. But the abundance of uplifting energy that Mischief Brew brought to the stage spread like napalm throughout the venue keeping just about the whole crowd smiling and slam dancing throughout the set.
MIschief Brew live from Sunnyvale.
Photo by Jeff Schaer – Moses
New York based folk punks Out of System Transfer, Oi punks The Homewreckers, and New Jersey based party punk / anti folk outfit Crazy and the Brains opened the show. Out of System Transfer was definitely far on the folk side of folk punk playing tunes that almost bordered on country. The Homewreckers had a distinctly pop punk feel to their tunes. While Crazy and the Brains were just an out of control punk experience
