FinalBossFight! and Co. Rock A Good Ol’ Fashioned Midwest Emo Throwdown
On Saturday, January 31 the touring Empty Parking Lot and LQM hosted the local headlining FinalBossFight! and LoudFoxCult at the Orchid Theater in Ferndale. In a time of so much listless anger, the show provided a window into how the average midwest emo is grappling with the competing desires to rot endlessly in one’s room and the modern provocation to action in the face of injustice.
The night was a celebration of all that is Midwestern, melancholic, and melodramatic. Ironic detachment, satire, and self-aware self-deprecating humor were an unavoidable outcome of the deeply personal, emotionally raw, and socially aggravated expressions of the artists who make it. I say this all in service of reassuring the reader that the night was in fact a blast, full of crowd surfers and moshpits, even if that fun stemmed from a deep catharsis in the face of personal, societal, and mental health struggles.
LOUDFOXCULT
LoudFoxCult’s speed leaning power emo was a bright wake up at the start of the show, like a redbull at 6 am or the first breath of that sub-zero air the midwest recently has fallen under as of late. Gripping and volatile, rattling against a cage of its own creation and inevitably busting free, “Going222hell” displays their volatile affect lyrically and musically. Starting a fast paced indictment of the self destruction inherent in the emo lifestyle and then sliding into a swinging admission of the band’s comfort in that life. Their set, like their songs, shifted between hard edged emo and punchy pogo-jumping punk.
Needless to say, for a night showcasing the state of the midwest emo scene, this was a welcome, while possibly confronting, introduction. With regard to the aforementioned conceit of my writing, the band LoudFoxCult has decided to stare the apathetic and passionate dissonance of the modern era directly in the face, and then through clenched teeth describe exactly the shape it takes in their lives, and it has made for a powerful band identity. LFC’s brand of self aware cynicism isn’t something uncommon to the midwest emo scene, in fact it’s a staple of the genre as common as band names not simply conducive to a 3 letter acronym, but begging for it.
LQM
Speaking of 3 letter bands with a near crippling sense of self awareness, standing in front of a wall-sized image of SpongeBob grinning over a money spread at a young girl asking, “dad, are you in a midwest emo band?” Chicago’s LQM introduced every single song without fail via a monotoned and direct statement of the title. I guess when your songs are titled things like “Sidwest Emo: My Personal Ice Age” and “Let’s Meet up and Maybe Listen to Some Midwest Emo,” self-referential irony is not only a baseline assumption, but a driving force, and a theme strong enough to carry a whole set.
The music’s vibe was not unfamiliar to the midwest emo enjoyer, taking clear inspiration from Modern Baseball (even closing on their song The Weekend). Glittering lead guitars, experiments in rhythm, and open tuning waved through the Orchid alongside, let’s say distorted, vocals nearly whining about the woes of the singer. If you aren’t a midwest emo enjoyer (I don’t know why or how you have made it this far), that might sound bad, but believe me as someone deep in the scene I mean that as the highest compliment.
A brief aside about Emo: While this concert was not a protest (though if you do plan on attending one, click here for advice on how to stay safe while engaging), the bands and fans had choice words for the federal agents currently antagonizing neighborhoods across our country. Specifically, one four-letter word. Emo is a genre that leans into that which is hard, traumatic, and upsetting. It is in the name; for that reason, it is difficult to ignore that a show so interested in emotion, held at a time so emotional, would strike a nerve. The next artist I am going to describe is an expert at striking nerves, and projects in the raw emotions left behind after.
EMPTY PARKING LOT
Let’s start with a practice in imagination: you are in your mid 20s, it’s 3 AM, you are halfway awake on the 3-year-old mattress-in-a-box on an Ikea frame in a shoebox apartment that costs three-quarters of your paycheck. You are scrolling through a short-form media platform when you come across a funny video you want to send to your girlfriend, who inconveniently shattered your heart into a million pieces the week before. That is what Empty Parking Lot sounds like.
Without sounding too ambitious, I think of Empty Parking Lot as a Midwest Emo Blueprint Band, and that is almost their point. Whatever quality that (second-wave?) Midwest emo bands seek to create; EPL achieves. Their guitars glide between mathy, near-arithmetic, twinkling riffs and swinging, open-tuned strumming. A song hardly passes without a spoken word section. Whether that be Marco “merky” Martinez (of whom EPL is the brainchild) himself, disclosing a deep and passionate woe, or, as is so common in Midwest emo, a clip from some scene in some show/movie you probably saw once but can’t remember the context of. Between riffs and talking came Merky’s unique singing style.
Midwest emo enjoyers will understand that when I say he toed the line of screaming and crying, I am enshrining the singing skills in the canon of those held highest in the genre. Expressing your emotions is top, and that doesn’t just mean lyrically. Some of the crowd favorite songs were “pictures of you by the cure” (not a cover), “im eating a chicken sandwich,” and the silly songs for a silly girl opener, “i used to check my driveway hoping one day i might see you there.”
The band’s debut album was a project in processing the loss of a girlfriend, and the work has been ongoing, slowly releasing songs, having community naming contests, and changing tracklists before a final version was released earlier in January. Midwest emo is back, and this wave is coming with a self-aware and deeply ingrained style that not so much respects its elders as treats them as inevitable and prophetic, to be relived and repeated once more.
FINALBOSSFIGHT
FinalBossFight!, Pleasant Underground veterans, and the night’s closing act, turn down the melodramatics and turn up the speed. As is typical of the local scene legends, they put on a show that wasn’t only high energy but also high emotion and high fun. “House Rules” is a pogo-jumping push-pit catalyst, and even though it discusses their sad songs, it never quite slows down enough for those sad thoughts to creep in.
Another song I particularly liked was “How Do U Have Friends?” (which the band told us was a question especially dedicated to those federal agents discussed earlier). It starts with an anxious and building intro, springs into an aggressive headbanging middle, and lands on a clear dance bop through the bouncy “Loud Together/Lonely Forever” refrain. The album closer from ‘The Life of My Dream,’ was also a celebrated song, punchy and quick, focussed on their “quarter life crisis” waiting at home,a feeling that life has already been wasted at such a young age.
The band’s energy was unmatched: pick sliding, speaker hopping, and hats being thrown on and off in a battle between hair and the ability to see. They are a band that so clearly enjoys making music with each other. Infectious smiles all around and a stage presence that shows clear band chemistry. Amidst the fun the band never missed a beat, brought the energy to the roof, and delivered a pop punk emo close to the night. FinalBossFight!, leaning into their anger but still showing their sad side, showed that the new wave of Midwest emo could also take a more aggressive and genuine stance, accusing the world around it instead of bearing all the blame, and having a great time doing it.
While the Empty Parking Lot/LQM tour wrapped up this week, check out their social media: FinalBossFight!, Empty Parking Lot, LQM, LoudFoxCult! for future shows. Also, check out their music on whichever streaming service you like (or better yet, pay them for it on Bandcamp, I checked and they are all there).