Total Bummer Festival Day 2: Jesus and Mary Chain/They Are Gutting A Body of Water/Julie @ Knockdown Center, Queens, NY 5/31/26

Bill: Total Bummer Festival Day 2: (Main Hall): Jesus and Mary Chain/julie/Her New Knife/Lathe of Heaven (Ruins) They Are Gutting A Body of Water/Drop Nineteens/Starcleaner Reunion/Blair

Venue: Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Ave., Maspeth, Queens, NY

Date: Sunday 5/31/26

Door: $70 (had a +1)

10pm Jesus and Mary Chain

Active: 1983 (East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, Scotland)

Latest Release: "Pop Seeds" (Fuzz Club, 2024), Glasgow Eyes (Fuzz Club, 2024)

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8:45pm They Are Gutting A Body of Water

Active: 2017 (Philadelphia, PA)

Latest Release: "Charter Spec" (ATO/Julia's War/Smoking Room, 2026),  Lotto (ATO/Julia's War/Smoking Room, 2025)

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8:05 julie

Active: 2018 (Orange County, CA)

Latest Release: My Anti-Aircraft Friend (Atlantic, 2024)

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I had some birthday plans for day 1 of the Total Bummer Festival.  I didn't feel too bad about missing Dinosaur Jr. since I saw them fairly recently and usually cycle in a check-in every other year since the 80's , but I felt a twing of regret for missing Flipper even though Bruce Loose has passed and they are down to their guitarist and drummer and the guy from Pissed Jeans singing.  I missed them last time too when they opened for someone in a big hall.   Meat Puppets would've been a nice add on, and while I enjoyed Blonde Redhead a couple years ago, I didn't need to see them again so soon.  My friend bought a weekend pass long ago then won comp tickets for night two, so Sunday night opened up for me to finally catch the Jesus and Mary Chain, 41 years after falling in love with Psychocandy.  At the time I likened them to Syd Barrett with feedback, but I might have had limited things to compare them to.  They did seem completely original to me in 1985 when I bought their album without hearing anything about it because I thought it looked cool.  I actually did that in 1985 even though I was still on a paper route budget and not yet on the radio.  I guess I was so bored with commerical radio rock at that time I was seeking unchartered territory that was hopefully more abrasive.

I was still underage and didn't see the J&MC debut in Boston back when I cared most.  I remember the music director at WICN saw it and let me know how terrible it was: too much dry ice and only 20 minutes she railed.  I asked my friend if he got to see J&MC in the 80's and sure enough he saw them and regaled me with the same 20 minute story!  W,hen the second album came out I was disappointed in their cleaner, more commercial alternative direction but liked "April Skies" fine.  Throughout the years they had something that grabbed my ear: "I Hate Rock and Roll" and one of their later Sub Pop records sounded good.  Hearing their latest digital single "Pop Seeds" made me think they still got it.  Live they put in a professional hour plus with only occasional dry ice and without encore festival show.  Nowadays they have lots of hits to play including my early Psychocandy favorites "Just Like Honey," "In A Hole" and "Taste of Cindy."  I waited so long to see them they got grey, but the stance is still roughly the same although more cuddly than confrontational.

A full day of nugaze wasn't in the cards for me, but I thought I'd check out at least a couple of the bills new acts.  I recently wrote about Drop Nineteens a few months back, so I got there conveniently late to miss them.  Unfortunately I did something to my foot on my birthday, so I really wanted that B57 from the Jefferson L that always seems to take forever on Sunday just like it did living off it at other points over the years.  That is the worst damn bus!  So that means by the time I got in, julie were deep into their set and I only saw the last couple songs.  It was about what I expected stylistically: pleasant, indistinguishable noise pop fronted by a hot chick.  Supposedly, there are so many female artists that write their full name in lowercase that the logo/font style has created it's own subgenre as opposed to 30 years ago when it was a signifier for a band like further was ripping off Dinosaur Jr. or Lou Barlow, who didn't use that style exclusively everytime their namesake was used, but often incorporated into their art graphics.  I think I saw the bullshit term lowercasecore on AI or something.  Awful!

I was curious about a male band that started as a cassette lowercasecore band they are gutting a body of water, but I really only noticed that affliction after I looked at their Discogs listing.  My friend thought they were boring and overrated.  Trying to get into the Ruins outside to see them proved very difficult from three different stairwells as the capacity there is significantly less than inside, but I did get behind the stage with a tree blocking the sightline occasionally exposing the drummer and main guitarist/vocalist.  Mostly these were instrumental lo-fi nugaze numbers with some electronic stylistic surpises intersperse.  Between that lousy vantage point and middling music, I had enough after about 20-30 minutes and went into the main space where a leaning post near the main stage had my name on it.  Of course this attracted some of the most annoying concert attendees in the room.  First was a long haired lone dancing by myself dancer who came with a girl that wasn't dancing.  Then I was relieved when they cleared out 3/4 into the show and I no longer had to get the accidental body bumps of an annoying man in my personal space.  My joy turned to annoyance when he was replaced by somebody very young and extremely lanky tall.  Like 6' 6" tall.  My friend immediately pushed him out of the way but he was in my sightline the rest of the show.  However, the sightline was not so obliterated that I was about to move from my leaning post.  I've got my priorities.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Dinosaur Jr. @ Lena Horne Bandshell, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY 7/17/25

Blonde Redhead @ Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY 10/26/24