For fans of rock music like me, rock’s fading from the music zeitgeist for the last couple decades has been a point of outright bafflement. Critics will say it’s due to a lack of exciting, relevant bands connecting with the newer generations. I call bullshit on that. If you were in the audience at The Echo last Tuesday night, watching StrateJacket, Grave Secrets and Winona Fighter playing, you would know it’s certainly not a lack of awesome new bands keeping rock music down.
San Francisco trio StrateJacket hit the stage with the cool, modern bohemian look of The Strokes, but brought the energy and hooks of a young Green Day. And it’s easy to make the comparison to the latter band, as the band’s lead singer’s vocal approach sounds much like their NorCal neighbor Billie Joe Armstrong. Songs like opener “Be My Drug” have the pop hooks perfect for sing-alongs. While it may be easier to group them in the pop-punk genre, throughout the set the band showed off grander ambitions, with darker alt rock leanings (“Living a Lie”) and even breaking out some Who-like riffs on the ultra catchy power pop tune “Dreamcatcher”. However you want to categorize the group, the truth is I was unfamiliar with their music when I entered The Echo, and by the end of their set I wanted to listen to their album. They have youthful energy and good songs, and I have trouble believing if you put any Gen-Z or Gen-Alpha person in the audience, they wouldn’t have a good time.
There were certainly people having a great time during local band Grave Secrets‘ set. There was a section of the audience happily jumping around and shouting out songs as soon as the group began playing. When the band’s frontman mentioned having a friend from high school in the audience who he went to hardcore shows with, it didn’t surprise me that that style of music was an influence on the band. Though still fully melodic, there was an undercurrent of aggressive punk rock in songs like “Bad Blood” and “Stuck Inside”. A mosh pit broke out just a few songs into the set, marking the first real crowd movement of the night. The band’s songs ranged stylistically from the off-beat alt rock of Pixies to lyric-focused emo to brooding shoegaze, but always with a full-throttle performance. For the last couple of songs, the frontman brought out a friend to take over on guitar so he could get up close and personal with the audience, blazing through their most hardcore track “Fuck Shit Up” and the throat-shredding “Mood Ring”. These guys have “underground heroes” written all over them, and I could see them evolving into a Deftones-level act as they continue to develop their craft.
Unlike the first two acts, I was already very familiar with headliners Winona Fighter, having covered their fun music video for “Attention“, along with including their album in our NMF coverage the week of release. Their songs have been stuck in my head on many occasions over the last months, and the hype for their live shows was making the rounds online, so I was excited to see them in action.
The band wasted no time getting lost in some rock n’ roll abandon on stage, with singer/rhythm guitarist Coco Kinnon, lead guitarist Dan Fuson and bassist Austin Luther bouncing off each other on stage as they blasted out the hilariously-titled “You Look Like a Drunk Phoebe Bridgers“. The band’s songs manage to find balance between righteous, acerbic fury and audience-pleasing choruses that make each track worthy of punk rock bonafides, while still making a play for mainstream love. Kinnon delivered vocals on “I Think You Should Leave” with an unmatchable intensity, stalking back and forth on the stage. She rarely stood still through the night (so apologies for my poor, blurry photos), showcasing an engaging stage presence.
Jokingly admitting to being an audience bully, Kinnon gave the audience a push to get moving, and they obliged, as the band played snark-filled tracks like “R U Famous” and my favorite, “Attention”. “Sweat to God That I’m (Fine)” had the audience shouting along with the cathartic chorus. A theme of female empowerment and calling-out toxic male culture is easy to hear in the band’s songs, and Kinnon not only got all the women in the audience to make themselves heard, but also asked for all the men who respected and supported women to make themselves heard (thankfully, many did). Bands like Winona Fighter are so important for young women to see and hear (there was a young girl, maybe 8 or 9, front row of the show), and a prime example that women can rock as good as any man.
As the band only has one album out, My Apologies to the Chef, all of the songs played came from that album. The band blazed through “Talk”, “Johnny’s Dead” and “Don’t Wallow” with fiery aplomb, getting a Grave Secrets fan in a Motorhead shirt (Victor) to be the pit leader and get things moving fast again. He accomplished his job, so by the time the band was closing out their set with their hit “HAMMS IN A GLASS”, the audience was in a sweaty, post-pit haze.
As the audience called out for music, despite the band having run through all of their originals, Winona Fighter dove into a cover of a 90’s favorite – the Beastie Boys‘ “Sabotage”. It was a fitting way to end the show, as the punk rock spirit of that group clearly lives on in Winona Fighter. This is a band that deserves to be discovered by more and more people. All they need is a Paramore or Olivia Rodrigo to bring them on tour to break them through the popularity ceiling that has been placed on new rock bands in the modern era.
Check out their upcoming tour dates here, and listen to My Apologies to the Chef.
The Indy Review 
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