Photo credit: Rhianna O'Shea/The Rave
There’s no one quite like Laura Jane Grace. She’s all smiles onstage. Her charisma and her overall badassery make it impossible for you to take your eyes off of her for more than a few seconds. This is after all, the same woman who set her birth certificate on fire as a response to a transphobic bathroom bill in North Carolina, right in the middle of an Against Me! show in 2016.
Friday night’s show at The Rave Bar marked Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers’ halfway point on their spring tour across the states with Philadelphia-based punk trio Control Top and Jersey rockers Mercy Union.
The band—comprised of Grace, Atom Willard and Marc Jacob Hudson, entirely clad in black—kicked off their set with the first single from their debut, Bought to Rot, “Apocalypse Now (& Later),” which tells the tale of blossoming romance amid, well, the apocalypse, or what Grace has said is about having the best time ever during what feels like what may be the end of the world.
“This is a song about where I live,” she said and was met with an immediate wave of applause and howls. Understandably, a song with a title like “I Hate Chicago,” a three minute-long sardonic-yet-playful jab that takes aim at some of the Windy City’s most famous indie rock idols, beloved teams, its rage-inducing gridlock and deep-dish pizza, went over well in a city like Milwaukee. “I hate the Cubs, the Sox, the Blackhawks and the Bulls,” she sang, jesting. A few attendees in the front row shake their fist in the air. Grace, seemingly unable to hold back her laughter, continues. “I couldn't give a shit about the Pumpkins, Slint or Wilco.”
The band powered through odes to friendship (“The Friendship Song”) and heavy-hitter existentialist anthems like “Born in Black” before taking a brief pause. Their set was followed by an encore that included acoustic versions of “True Trans Soul Rebel,” “Harsh Realms,” and “Cavalier Eternal,” along with a Camper Van Beethoven cover.
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The Devouring Mothers bookmarks a new chapter for Grace. It’s a deliberate and refreshing departure from both the anarchist folk-punk origins of Against Me! and her previous acoustic-heavy solo material like 2008’s Heart Burns. Her latest work boasts elements of power-pop and straightforward rock ‘n’ roll with nods to fellow Gainesville hero Tom Petty and glam rock deity Marc Bolan. It might be too soon to predict what role the Devouring Mothers’ music will play in Grace’s now 20-year spanning catalog, but she is by no means a stranger to contingency. There’s no telling what she’ll do next, which makes every step along the way all the more exciting.
