Mannequin Pussy power: Philadelphia punk band takes Upper Sproul

On Thursday, April 14, indie punk group Mannequin Pussy rocked Upper Sproul, sparking a daytime mosh that triumphed over the gloomy weather conditions and chased the rainy day blues away. This was an unexpected installment on their Perfect tour, in support of their 2021 EP of the same name. The free event was not advertised until Friday April 9, less than a week before the show, when the event host ASUC Superb posted an announcement on their Instagram page. In the days leading up to the show, flyers featuring the face of lead singer Missy Dabice with her iconic shag haircut passed between hands and appeared in clusters on walls around campus. It seems the band members were also asked to maintain discretion around the event. Half an hour before the set, they tweeted advertising their surprise performance: “Didn’t announce it cuz I didn’t think we were allowed to but if ur in BERKELEY CA and can get to UC BERKELEY sproul plaza we’re playing outside in thirty minutes.”

The weather conditions were unideal for an outdoor performance—drizzle floated down onto the modest crowd that had gathered by 5pm, the set time for the beginning of the series of performances. A small throng sporting piercings, spiked collars, eyeliner and buzz cuts had gathered by the time openers Most Fried took their positions. Most Fried set the mood for the evening with their rambunctious dynamism, thrashing along to the music and switching instruments throughout the set. But for a few bold individuals dominating the pit, most students in the crowd shivered in place—after a few songs, frontman Marcus Bailey called out for more folks to get moving. Met with little response, he slipped through the barrier separating the stage from the audience and whipped the excited throng into a sea of movement. The Talking Heads-esque tunes, upbeat reggae-punk sound, and boyish banter among the band made for an energetic opening to the night.

After Most Fried made their exit, Philadelphia screamo sensation Soul Glo took the stage. By the time of their set, more fans as well as curious onlookers had gathered at the scene, and Soul Glo continued to deliver the energy that Most Fried had jumpstarted. Following Marcus’s lead, lead singer Pierce Jordan performed almost the whole set from the pit, a move the audience loved. The two crowd-centered sets by these local musicians spoke to a specific type of concert experience championed by punk music—one that focuses on embodied, physical feelings and sensations as well as the music itself. The energy is derived from proximity, and interaction; the experience depends on trust between audience members that everyone will watch out for each other, picking each other up when they fall, letting loose in the mosh but always keeping an eye out for those in need of help. These values define not only punk music but also praxis within the musical community.

Throughout the year, and since their last Bay Area performance in September at The New Parish, Mannequin Pussy has faced many challenges that were only overcome through their mutual support networks. Despite the name of their first single off of Perfect, the band was very much not in control. The pandemic was enough to take any touring band down and lower morale, but the first few months of renewed performances presented even more hardships for Mannequin Pussy. Seven days before the Oakland show, Missy sprained her ankle, but continued to perform on crutches during her recovery. Less than a month later, their tour van and trailer full of gear were stolen in Ohio. Five guitars, a bass, and their iconic Mannequin Pussy-branded drum kit were taken, along with mics, stands, pedals, and other equipment necessary to perform. The band relied on their community and close connections to carry them through the fallout, borrowing equipment from their opening bands Angel Du$t and Pinkshift in order to perform the last handful of shows on the 2021 leg of the Perfect tour. Friends and fans showed up to help support the beloved punk group; the GoFundMe campaign they launched has raised a total of $44,755 at the time this article was written. Mannequin Pussy continues to take these challenges in stride, and arrived in Berkeley rejuvenated and ready to rumble.

As Soul Glo signed off, the members of Mannequin Pussy filed onto the tent-covered steps of Upper Sproul. While they laid out their bountiful pedalboards and tuned their guitars, students from ASUC Superb gathered to crouch on the stage side of the barricade, buttressing the metal fencing against the swelling crowd. The noise settled, and an eerie, fluttering synth punctuated the air, whistling like the wave organs that grace the San Francisco Marina. Nebulous for a moment, it soon took shape, crystallizing into the opening riff of “In Love Again.” And sure enough, the band soon sprang into action with the intro chords. Missy’s clear, steady voice surfaced amidst the intensity of the rhythm guitars, haunting the crowd. Bodies swayed and stumbled, students on the outskirts of the mosh pit laughed as they pushed straying moshers back into the mix. Some people even crowd surfed, including one member of Most Fried. As the enthusiastic crowd continued to punch the air and headbang with reckless abandon, more and more members of Superb were dispatched to hold up the barricade, braving both the crowd and the swiftly intensifying rain to keep everyone safe. Unfortunately for these courageous individuals, the band continued to pump out crowd favorites, and the show came to its climax with the passionate punk ballad “Romantic.”

Following “Romantic,” was “High Horse,” which Missy prefaced with a few short words. “With this next song we’re gonna take it down,” she whispered, her voice growing louder as she spoke. “Then we’re gonna bring it back up.” The band launched into the song, melancholy chords pouring out from all sides of the stage. The foreboding drum beat brought with itself a sense of urgency, anxiety, a steady insistence for recognition. Missy whispered the first verse before belting out the pre-chorus, her voice reaching a crescendo. It is a song about anger, betrayal, violation. Mannequin Pussy’s music frequently focuses on domestic violence and abusive relationships, and this deeper cut from their album Patience (2019) represents the peak of this pain. After the song came to a close, Missy paused to speak on the issue. “If you have a partner who hits you or belittles you, leave him,” she said. “You don’t love them and they don’t love you. You have no reason to stay.”

As they have often done on their Perfect tour, the band closed the set with “Pigs is Pigs.” A song about the contemporary Black experience written in the aftermath of the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, it is the only track in the band’s discography that features the lead vocals of bassist Bear Regisford. The song was co-written by Missy and Bear, but she let him take the lead in expressing his anguish and fury. “Dealing with my feelings//And I’m dealing from my home//Oh god, Don’t wanna die alone,” Bear screamed into the mic, scorching instrumentals accompanying his voice as the band symbolically supported him in the background of his struggle. The song directly addressed and denounced these instances of police brutality, naming the victims in its lyrics: “George couldn’t breathe//Yeah this is fucked//Breonna needed sleep//No knock, no knock.” This punk proclamation is only the most recent of the many calls to action that have been issued from the steps of Upper Sproul. Workers movements, the anti-Vietnam war movement, and protestors fighting to free People’s Park have all spoken out against our unjust institutions and decried the military and prison industrial complexes since the 1960s. Standing in the same place where MLK delivered his final address to the Bay Area little more than 50 years ago, Bear addressed his crowd—his words were heard by seventy or eighty individuals rather than seven thousand, but his chilling testament of the modern day was nonetheless relevant and valued. As the final lyrics of the song rang out, the band left a message to these students in the crux of Bay Area activism, who will undoubtedly shape the future of these institutions: “It’s your life//It’s all on you, decide.” 

With those words having left his mouth, Bear dropped the mic. No encore followed; there was nothing more to be said. The band had given its all, and delivered another incredible performance despite the odds set against them in the past year. Students leaving Sproul that day dispersed drenched to the bone with a ringing in their ears and that final message in mind.

Article by Sophia Shen.

Photos by Dorothy Eck.