Brontez Purnell just flew in from Oakland and boy his wings are tired at O’Brien’s Pub on Wednesday, 1 May 2024.

Julia Pierce rocks a theremin and Hammered Saint rocks a concrete block in the opening slots.

Happy May Day!

May 1 is/was International Workers Day.

How did you celebrate it?

Maybe you did nothing – the United States is one of the few countries worldwide not to make the day a national holiday.

That’s too bad because the USA is home to the history that originated the day of celebration of the dignity and rights of workers. May Day originally commemorated the workers’ struggle and sacrifice at the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, Illinois in 1886. The day has since evolved to pay respects to the struggle for labor rights everywhere.

True, Americans celebrate Labor Day, which became a national holiday in 1894. Each and every first Monday of September. A day off and, for some, the last breath of summer fun. No complaints about a day off, but does the holiday lose something when it gets detached from its more militant origins and regarded as just another day off (if you’re lucky)?

That might be the fate of all holidays, gradually dislocated from the cultural significance of their historical genesis. But it hits a little different, and a little harder, in a country where the labor movement has been in a decades-long decline, and many of the hard fought gains won by the movement being erased like a sandcastle on a seashore in the face of a rising tide.

The thing is, the strength of the labor movement was always realizing the people themselves are the tide, and acting on that realization. Let’s get back to that.

The four-piece glam punk ensemble Hammered Saint brings the live show. Hump Day News captured for posterity the Squared Root performance that got them banned from the venue. Honestly, though, an overreaction by an ownership that doesn’t know how to go with the flow. Points deducted for the Roslindale spot.

The frontwoman for the band has a tendency to go hither and thither during the live set. But a new stage prop – a concrete block – inspired a different challenge.

The singer stood the block vertical-wise and sang at least one song while balancing on the precarious platform like the Karate Kid pulling off the crane maneuver. Not recommended for the faint of heart, though her bandmates were in position to help out if she started to stumble.

Hammered Saint has had a few new releases lately, including an homage to Taylor Swift called “Taylor Swift.” At least I think it’s a homage?

Theremin. Period. Nuff said!

Any night out on the town with a surprise visit by the theremin is a good night. A rare instrument, operated by hands manipulating electromagnetic fields.

The history of the instrument is a fascinating study, roughly mapping onto the kind of early 20 century techno-optimism that only Silicon Valley weirdos can approximate these days. We were all going to have jetpacks, trade in our violins for theremins, and take vacations to the moon. Sounds like fun.

The two-piece Julia Pierce rocked a post punk wyrdcore set with a refreshingly broad palate of sound design. If you squinted your ears, they sounded like a lot of different pop stylings. But you really had to squint, or have good ears, otherwise the electro landslide theremin sound would claim all the attention.

No complaints, here. This band rocks. You can’t listen to the theremin all the time, but pick your spots, and it’s the coolest set of the night.

The three-piece out of Oakland, fronted by Brontez Purnell, delivered bouncy queer punk with a wry sense of humor.

Hey, Purnell’s an author! He’s written a bunch, including Since I Laid My Burden Down, and 100 Boyfriends, plus a collection of stories.

This career highlight bio at the MacMillan website is solid – though music doesn’t even get mentioned until the last couple of lines.

Brontez Purnell is the author of several books, most recently 100 Boyfriends, which won the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Fiction, was longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, and was named an Editors' Choice by the New York Times Book Review. The recipient of a 2018 Whiting Writers' Award for Fiction and the 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award, he was named one of the thirty-two Black Male Writers of Our Time by T: The New York Times Style Magazine in 2018. Purnell is also the frontman for the band the Younger Lovers and a renowned dancer, performance artist, and zine-maker. Born in Triana, Alabama, he's lived in Oakland, California, for two decades.

If you Google image search ‘Brontez Purnell,’ you get more hits with a topless Purnell than anything else. Free the nipple, sure, but you can’t help but think a white author wouldn’t get publicized and promoted like this. A short speech about the easy objectification of black bodies in American pop culture can be dropped <here>.

Purnell’s choice, but what kinds of choices is he choosing between?

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