**War On Women** kicking our assess at Ottobar’s 29th birthday party. photo by kim moenich

Back in late May of this year, I was fortunate enough to attend the King of the Monsters 31st anniversary Fest in Arizona. I spent the weekend hanging out with a ton of bands from my youth, like Frail. A couple days after I got back to North Carolina, I woke up one morning and checked my IG, only to nearly drop my phone. There were my buds in Frail playing on the street of NYC outside of the Numero Group pop-up store with none other than RYE COALITION, who had, at that point, not played a show for nearly a decade. I freaked out. I immediately called out Frail for not telling any of us about the show, as I surely would have flown to Manhattan immediately, and they said that Numero had sworn them to secrecy.

Fast forward a couple of months, and news broke about this insane lineup for Ottobar’s 29th birthday with local Baltimore's War On Women, Ted Leo, Rye Coalition, and another personal favorite, Sleepytime Trio. I sent a screenshot to my husband that second and demanded he get the time off work for us to go!

So we headed up to B-more, dogs in tow, as we were coming off a two-week mountain vacation in Virginia. Spent a lovely day in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore, where I picked up the cutest Dolly Parton shirt to wear to the show, since it was 9/25, or Dolly Day. If you find yourself headed to a show at the legendary Ottobar, I highly suggest you tool around Hampden and perhaps visit the iconic record store Celebrated Summer and the equally noteworthy Service Photo Supply, just a short walk away.

We’re primarily a pro-cat magazine, but I mean, just look at their faces! Amelia and Cooper (and the husband).

While standing in line outside the venue, the couple in front of me struck up a conversation with us, and it turns out that we were at all the same shows back in the 90’s, from Wilkes Barre to Cleveland Fest. They are friends with a ton of my bff’s, and all our friends were freaking out when we sent them a selfie of the 3 of us together! Punk rock is a small world!

Gina and Erik and me, outside of the Ottobar.

Then Sleepytime Trio took the stage and everything else just melted away. I’ve been fortunate enough to see them a few times over the last several years at Fest and Dark Days Bright Nights, but they are one of those bands that you truly wish you could see at least once a month, if not a week, they are just that good. After the show, we spent some time trying to convince them that our hometown has a good scene again, since two of the members live only a couple of hours north of us in North Carolina. Fingers crossed we can convince them to come play for us every once in a while!

Next up were Rye Coalition. And man, oh man. Like Sleepytime Trio, Rye Coaliation formed in 1994 and played all the fests and shows I went to back in those days. They were constants and darlings of the scene, and getting to see them again, after all these years, felt like a homecoming. The years have been very kind to the band, and they played with all the energy of our youth, and I found myself forgetting to take photos as I danced and screamed along. They put on one of the best sets I’ve seen in years, and you could tell the crowd felt the same. I truly hope the love we were pouring out showed them how much we want them back in regular rotation, because I don’t want to wait another couple of decades to see them again!

This was my first time seeing Ted Leo solo. I have seen him with his band, The Pharmacists, at Fest, and I saw him with Gang of Four several times last year (and, of course, I saw him with Chisel a million years ago!) He’s such a force, even with only his guitar to back him up. He’s funny, strong of voice and character, charming, and his songs lift you up and put you in the mindset to fight injustices everywhere. He also took the stage with Rye Coalition to rip a Thin Lizzy cover (an odd string of words I’d never thought I’d write!) While I initially thought his inclusion on this bill a bit strange, it turned out that he fit right in and I truly enjoyed his performance.

This may come as a shock to you all, but this was my very first time seeing War On Women. The closest I’ve come is one time when they were on tour with Bad Religion, they played in Charlotte at the Fillmore while I was next door at the Underground, seeing Quicksand. There’s no reason for it, it’s just never worked out. So I was a bit excited to finally get to see them, especially in such a great venue and in their hometown. And I was not disappointed. While we were standing outside, the guitarist, Jennifer Vito, came out and was hanging out with us and made sure that my name was indeed on the photo list (who does that?! Rockstar!) From the first chord, I was captivated. Shawna is a natural front woman, but everyone in the band has a massive stage presence. Sue Werner had bass lines that melted my face, and Brooks Harlan, who is also in Burning Airlines (SOOOO good) and J. Robbin’s band, combined guitar rhythms with Jennifer that absolutely shredded. While I know nothing about playing drums, my husband assured me that Dave Cavalier was a complete beast. They have a very unique sound, not straight forward punk/hardcore, but something all their own. And of course I love the feminist, anti-fascist, pro-queer, lyrics as well. Apologies that it took me so long to finally see them, but I can promise you it won’t be the last time.