The Taxpayers/Pigeon Pit/The HIRS Collective @ The Meadows, Brooklyn, NY 6/28/25

 

Bill: The Taxpayers/Pigeon Pit/The HIRS Collective

Venue: The Meadows, Brooklyn, NY

Date: 6/28/25

Door: $35 (was +1 on list)

8:30pm The Taxpayers

Active: 2007 (Portland, OR)

Latest Release: Circle Breaker (Earnest Jenning Record Company, 2025)

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7:30pm Pigeon Pit

Active: 2014 (Olympia, WA)

Latest Release: Crazy Arms (Ernest Jenning Record Co., 2025)

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6:30pm The HIRS Collective

Active: 2011 (Philadelphia, PA)

Latest Release: We're Still Here (Get Better Records, 2023)

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Yesterday's show I went to because my Land-Line cohort thought he was putting up the middle band who were friends with his niece in Olympia.  He had a +1 so I had an early Saturday night meetup to see the show.  I knew absolutely nothing and maybe the thing I take away from it is how this scene or scenes in general have taken on a life of their own.  This is the type of thing I'd expect to see in Tompkins Square Park or the old ABC No Rio with people buying brown bag beers in the deli next door.  Nowadays anarchy can be accommodated with $11 PBR's ("talls") and a $35 door that thankfully I didn't have to pay.  This isn't an indictment so much as the "kids" of Portland, Olympia and Philadelphia can fill a 250-capacity room in Brooklyn and that is what these rooms need to charge to pay their overhead down the line.  Is anarcho-punk played in this traditional superstructure just another symptom of the dreaded gentrification they might rail against?  

Scene or no scene, I was there and curious to see what some bands I didn't know were doing.  We got in while the HIRS Collective were on.  It was basically a duo doing grindcore without a drummer and occasional something like C+C Music Factory would come out of the mix.  If you told me they had a massive discography and worked with all sorts of people I never would have guessed it.  I liked them for the 3 or 4 short songs I heard and felt like that was all I needed to see.  Their massive discography tells a different story with collabs and such, but that is the nature of "collective."

Since we were there for Pigeon Pit and being on their list,  I gave them the most attention of the night.  We did watch.  They were doing revved up folk-punk with a "Fuck Ice" backdrop.  The Taxpayers had a feel of something like World/Inferno Friend Society without the fire.  Their backdrop was "Fuck The Bosses Fuck The Wars Kill The Gods Save All The Dogs The Taxpayers."  So large ensemble collectivizing with some horns on the stage.  John thought of the Hungry March Band who I saw were playing somewhere called Ed's either the day before or around that time.