"Now I Spend All Of My Time Alone": The Release Show
Review and photos by: Drey Kereakos, Writer @drey.d.k.
Edited by: Andrew Perrizo, Owner/Editor @PlaylistTC
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On the evening of December 8th, 2023, bugsy (and friends) took to the 7th St Entry stage in celebration of their newly anticipated EP, “Now I Spend All Of My Time Alone”. I was lucky upon my arrival to have secured a spot front and center, as I had just received word that they officially sold out the show a few hours before doors. From the first moment I scan the stage, I noticed a banner hung up to the right spelling out the album title, and closely resembling how it appears on the album cover art. Amps throughout the stage were adorned with lace, matching the backdrop of the banner. A couple of mic stands were wrapped in fake vines, and the drum head incorporated a combination of said vines and lace. From the band’s initial inception they have always been pretty crafty in terms of their promo and merchandise. Collectively, they’ve hand drawn t-shirt designs, made shrinky dink earrings, built/assembled miniature sets, done stop motion animations, crocheted patches, and even coordinated matching bunny-themed bolo ties (exclusive to this particular show, if I’m not mistaken).
The night kicked off with an immediate wall of sound generated from up and coming emo shoegaze band 12th House Sun. Although they kept their set on the shorter side, it was incredibly tightly knit between all four members from the moment they started playing. Together they bobbed in sync, causing the crowd to do the same. I felt an immediate mutual respect and attentiveness between them and the audience that can often be hard to come by for acts starting off the night. Lead vocalist Kyle Schultz, one of two guitarists, and who ultimately jump-started this project, definitely had excellent vocal delivery but did get a little buried soundwise in my opinion. However, both guitarists in the band maintain a simultaneous thrash and melody that I think really solidify their sound in coexistence with the drums and bass, and everything was blended and balanced well in this live setting otherwise. Having hinted at new music coming next Spring, and with only a few 3-track long EP’s and singles out currently, I am certain to keep this group on my radar, and I encourage all of you fellow gazers out there to do the same.
Speaking of which, next up was Haze Gazer, a metal trio capable of making an entire room tremble from their sound alone. If anything, the 12th House Sun experience must’ve just been a warm-up, because by the time Haze Gazer was three songs in I found myself gripping a monitor on stage. The crowd naturally began forming a pit behind me, that only intensified as the set progressed. “Who here gets sad sometimes?” vocalist and guitarist B. Hause boldly inquires the crowd. Met with the utmost confirmation and response, they follow up with “who’s ready to be sad RIGHT NOW??!!!”. Their enthused yet raw screamer vocalization, combined with the rapid rumbling drumming of bandmate Sean and bassist Mia’s literal earthquake of sound, was successful in ramping up the energy for what was to follow. “Make music with your friends”, they conclude with saying.
That being said, it only made sense that Chicago-based “crycore” band Scarlet Demore carry the night forward. Bugsy played a release show of theirs earlier this year, and so to bear witness to this full circle moment was beautiful, honestly. At this point, both bands have traveled to each of their subsequent home bases to play each other’s release shows, which is really quite sweet. Scarlet Demore was the only band on this bill I had never seen or heard before, and ultimately, I had my mind totally blown by them. Lead vocalist Cat Ayala, was an absolute force on stage, making use of every crevice possible. I watched as fellow photographers and press moved about trying to get photos of them, because it truthfully, was quite difficult. This band of five total members, ended up breaking out a cover of “Romantic” by Mannequin Pussy that made the room into one synchronized headbang. At one point later on into the set, one of the guitarists proceeded to get into the crowd, as they had a wireless guitar. Not the first time I’ve seen that pulled off in a room that can get as packed as the Entry, but still cool nonetheless.
The crowd was perfectly riled up by this point, as for when bugsy came out for their set, “Axel F (aka Crazy Frog)” played through the monitors and people were already jumping. From here they jumped pretty much straight into “town crier”, which is also the first song off the new EP. What was cool about this live rendition, which I actually did not recall entirely until looking back at the Undercurrent documentation of it, was that vocalist Emily Schoonover actually sang an entirely different introductory verse before jumping into the version in alignment with the EP recording. Following this, were about twelve more songs, a solid mix of new and older tracks. Every track was played off of the new EP, as well as about half of their debut EP, “Teratoma” from 2020. They also broke out some older singles like “talk to you” and one of my personal favorites, “overwhelming”. You could hear the crowd singing a portion of nearly every song, and of course feel consistent movement. I personally did not participate in any of the mosh pits, but they certainly were still fun to witness and be adjacent to. For the last three songs of the set, the band was joined by vocalist and guitarist Emily Schoonover’s girlfriend Juno, who stepped in to play guitar (and for one song, bass) with them. As a result, Schoonover got to let loose and be guitar-less for the remainder of the set. Bassist Shannon Maroney got this opportunity as well, as they executed an incredibly unexpected cover of “Potential Break-Up Song” by Aly & AJ. In all of live bugsy history, I had never once gotten to witness Schoonover and Maroney get to just belt vocals and dance around with each other without their instruments, and I was living for it. After closing out with “recluse”, which coincidentally (and intentionally, I’m sure) is the final track off the new EP as well, bugsy did return for one last “encore” song, which ended up being something unreleased.
I think it was evident by everyone who got to attend this show, and play it, that there is so much love and friendship within this local community that often gets overlooked or lost in the chaos that is the rest of the world. I was so grateful I got to be there to both document and experience watching so many people connect and be vulnerable together. Obviously all the bands involved in this are worth checking out (so, definitely do that), but congratulations to bugsy, and be sure to keep up with them here.
