If you have even a passing interest in punk adjacent music and, for some reason, still care about the future of rock n’ roll, whatever that may end up looking like, you have probably heard of Militarie Gun. Maybe it was their viral hit "Do It Faster." Maybe, like me, you were impressed by their debut album, or pleasantly surprised by the growth on display on their second record, God Save The Gun. Even so, a bit of skepticism is understandable. Rock history is littered with bands prematurely crowned as saviors. In just the last five years, Idles, Fontaines D.C., Kneecap, Turnstile, Wet Leg, Geese and Amyl and The Sniffers have all been hailed as the next Pixies, Nirvana or Strokes, the ones meant to drag abrasive guitar music back into the spotlight. So you walk into the club curious, but guarded.
That skepticism begins to erode during the opening set by Spite House. They may not be a household name yet, but you would never guess it from the reaction they received. Their performance was tense, direct and perfectly calibrated to warm the room. When Militarie Gun finally took the stage, it felt like a rock n’ roll bomb detonated inside La Maroquinerie. Within seconds, the pit exploded. A churning mass of bodies, limbs and hair swallowed the floor, erupting in a roar after every drum count in or guitar stab, screaming every lyric back at frontman Ian Shelton.
Punk rock is supposed to be short, sharp and to the point, and after roughly fifty minutes of breathless momentum it seemed like Militarie Gun might be winding things down. The crowd had other ideas. The problem was simple: the band had already played everything they knew. What do you do when faced with the rarest of things, a real encore, not a scripted pause but a genuine demand for more? You play some of the songs again. And it worked. And it could have gone on all night, but Militarie Gun know to leave them wanting.
Every single one of the four hundred people in that room will see them again the next time they pass through town, and they will bring friends. Sometimes the lesson really is that simple.
Believe the hype.
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