Agender's record release show for Berserk at Zebulon was the third time I came across this band. The first two times were memorable moments. My first time crossing paths with the band was at The Echo during one of the last Monday night residencies held at the venue (oh how I miss those nights). It was Crook's 2023 residency and the line-up included Iress and Silent Mass. Iress is a band I've followed since 2019. The first time I saw the band was at Echo Park Rising and lead singer Michelle Malley played the set in a sling around her right arm. As for Silent Mass, I've been following lead singer Ammo Bankoff for years through various bands. She has a new project, I'll be there -- well, actually, she's in New York City these days so I guess technically if she comes out with a new project that plays a Los Angeles set, I'll be there.
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| Agender at Zebulon |
I came across the band a second time at Zebulon. This 2024 encounter stands out, because I did a venue jump. That's just something I don't do that often. If I remember correctly, I caught about half of Agender's set and then I drove a mile or two to the Bigfoot Lodge to catch half of Emily Rose & the Rounders' set. I went from (how Agender describes their music) synthy punchy post-punk to traditional country. Talk about mixing it up.
Scanning through the Zebulon website one day (no doubt putting together one of my weekly Show Alerts), I noticed that they were playing a set there. I went into my music calendar and marked the date to remind me that I wanted to catch a third set of the band.
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| Agender at Zebulon |
When the time arrived for their set to begin, the band got up on stage. As they waited for the DJ music to stop so that they could start their set, vocalist / guitarist Romy Hoffman and synth player Sara Rivas started a conversation. The DJ for the night, Allison Wolfe, was deep into her set and didn't notice that the band was ready to go. Finally, Hoffman raised an arm above her head to get Wolfe's attention. The DJ music subsided and the band launched into their set, starting it off with four songs from Berserk.
The crowd throughout the set was pressed up close to the stage. So close that I felt bad standing at the front of the stage and blocking the sightlines of those shorter than me so I eventually just took a knee and took photos from that level. Then I moved off to the side, which was less crowded and therefore I felt less guilty about standing tall.
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| Agender at Zebulon |
After the first four songs, the band went into their music catalog. The band's song "Preach" from their 2022 album No Nostalgia got a shoutout from a fan in the crowd, "That song can go twenty minutes!" It is a song that drives forward in an ultra-aggressive fashion with a touch of the Sci-Fi. "Youth" returned them to their current album. Hoffman introduced the song by saying about the band, "We're all over 40." "The more you know, the less you know . . . Hey, time doesn't wait." A curb ball was thrown into the set towards the end when one of Hoffman's guitar strings broke. For "Intimate Apparel," she mentioned to the audience, "I broke the string that I need." The band ended their set with "Womb 2 Wound" with Hoffman spitting out, "F*ck my biological clock."
Throughout the set, Hoffman's vocals shouted out the lyrics with short punctuated precision that kept pace with drum beats from Christy Greenwood. Greenwood kept the pace with an aggressive drum style that never slowed down. Rivas playing of the synths gave the music an exotic tone. Meanwhile, bassist Cristy Michel was playing in a mental zone.
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| Agender at Zebulon |
The band's song "Damaged Girls" is a nice example of the above summation of their set. It is a psychedelic song driven by Rivas' synths. Meanwhile, Hoffman paints an imagery of a variety of girl personalities that according to the Youtube video (you can watch it here) represents "a hard hitting homage to women . . . the more complex cuties."
Damaged girls, detached girls, dissociative girls.
Setlist: Life Is Acid, Damaged Girls, Things Things Things, Action Reaction, Monogamy, Woah Life Wow, Rusher, Preach, Youth, Vacuums, Jeans, Fortune Cookie, Intimate Apparel, I Need A Break from the U.S.A., Womb 2 Wound.
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