Real Shocks, Fan Club, Gripper, Window Phase, Izzy Maturana
Hall Pass
319 N. 11th St.
Philadelphia
Jan. 14, 2026
First show of the year (2026) at a new spot, and my first post on Midbrow. There’s a harmony here, so let’s set this shit off right. Breaking winter house-lock and a feeble attempt at dry January with a bike ride to what ended up being a room in the long-running, all-purpose art space Vox Populi (henceforth known as Vox) for a few hours of twangy rock n’ roll was just what this weary soul needed.
Hall Pass’ cap is like 80, which you’d think wouldn’t lend itself to a good wall to wall but that would only be because you didn’t have faith in Philly’s love of giving you what you need when you don’t expect it. Wet wood floors? Mixing board against the wall in the middle of the room? It don’t matter, Philly’s still dancing. First band was Window Phase; their's is a noisy grunge vibe with hard-hitting drums that are good for getting an audience’s ears used to the general volume level of an evening.
Gripper popped out next with some late 70’s/early 80’s worship that I heard singer Luk Hendriks was feeling really motivated by Cheap Trick and Alice Cooper to produce. Great bass playing that thankfully went beyond root note drudgery to highlight guitars, which still demanded their own times to shine even without mics. Personally, I got a little Meatloaf from Luk, and that’s not just because he shouted out the fat rockers, which I loved. Viva la barriga and check them below:
Fan Club hit it next and they hit it hard. They have a sort of twangy, if-The-Clash-and-The-Cramps-played-American-hardcore type of thing going on. I’ve seen guitarist Chad Bucklew shred in this band a time before at the now defunct Foto Club, online in Lysol before I ever met him, and also on the mic in Video Prick when we met in Seattle in 2022. The man is a show photographer's wet dream; he had the whole crowd eating out of his hand while he basically did gymnastics as he screamed and jumped around like fuckin' Super Mario that whole night. I love when people perform to less than 200 people like they’re playing a stadium. You gotta dress for the job you want, you feel me?
He’s no stranger to Philly either, having played at past venues like West Philly haven Second Empire with an even older band, Freak Vibe, which served as Lysol’s precursor. Learning that Chad’s a James Brown fan didn’t surprise me none, and his reference to James’ 1964 performance on the T.A.M.I. show made all the sense in the world to me as I think now about him running in and out the crowd while playing during his set. Nothing’s off-limits for the guy. I’ll drop the T.A.M.I. show clip above the Fan Club clip so you can get some history and catch a vibe. Fan Club also just dropped a cool new video today. It’s a simple romp around town with the lads but, personally, I never get tired of seeing bands actually being friends. So I’ll drop that here too.
James Brown & The Famous Flames, live on the T.A.M.I show 1964
“Don’t Give A Damn” - Fan Club (Official Music Video)
After Fan Club was my friend and show promoter Izzy’s band, Real Shocks. They play the kind of raw, '80s hardcore punk that Philly truly loves. It reminds me of bands like J.F.A., but with an even more degraded sound on record. It sounds a little like singer Matt Lavine yelling into a CB radio. The energy is absolutely the same though, and it probably has something to do with Izzy’s being from the west coast (Oakland, though) having moved here in 2021. I was pretty much relegated to the back of the room during their set after taking too long to pee before they started, so no video. Trust me when I tell you it was slam and throw can time, though. It was God’s will alone that kept the mixing board safe during their set.
Throughout the show, Izzy was in every corner of the gig, making sure everyone’s needs were met and that the show and its changeovers continued moving on time. This consistency I’ve come to expect from her shows, but tonight she was doing all of this masked up and dealing with whatever flu/sinus infection/Covid variant legit everyone around me seems to be currently suffering from. Not me though, I’m dodging this shit like I’m in the fuckin Matrix. Holla. We chatted the next day and she told me about how natural it felt to fall in with the motivation and urgency that Philadelphians seem to naturally have.
A multi-instrumentalist with skills on guitar, bass, and drums, Izzy typically gravitates to vocals, most recently singing in another hardcore punk outfit called Gen Gap. Despite the relativity of minimum wage and cost of living expenses like rent on the east and west coast, people still struggle because it is just generally too expensive to live and create savings while also making art.
“I feel like on the West Coast, especially in California, you get really stuck just trying to survive and it doesn't leave a lot of room to work on your passions and all your projects. Everyone’s just trying to make it by, there's not a lot of free time to start bands and there's definitely not a lot of DIY venues left. I also feel like the culture is different between here and the West Coast. People do move a little slower and I think that's kind of part of the reason I feel kind of there's a quickness to the East Coast. Even though it's not New York, things move faster than they do back home.”
Considering that I heard about Hall Pass for the first time a month ago through this show and I’m now here writing a review for it for a job I got three days ago, I get what she means. Philly is also full of buildings that are hundreds of years old, and even though Hall Pass is new, Vox isn’t. I’ve been going to shows in different rooms on different levels of that building since I moved there in 2011. While my experiences of going to shows in Philly have changed, a lot of longstanding buildings and players therein have remained the same. The First Unitarian Church started doing shows three years before I was fucking born and I work door at shows there now. (I’ll let you figure out the math through Google)
Every art and music scene under capitalism will always be a stone being bled. That’s the way shit is. For Izzy, what we need to do is simply ease that burden on ourselves and each other from within.
“I wanna see less individualism [and fewer] excuses for why you can't help or you can't contribute to whatever it is like if it's your local scene, or your community, or your city, [but] I feel like we could all stand to be a little more understanding even when we're pissed off at each other. Like, conflict is a normal part of being a human [but] just being compassionate towards each other can go a really, really long way.
You can encourage people to get off their ass and do something [but you] also gotta lead with love and not be too intense and reactionary and being like, ‘You fucking people are not doing enough, all this is your fault.’ That’s not gonna help. That’s already what’s being said by society and politicians. It’s so easy to start thinking that way, and that'll just start really bringing you down because you're not actually [seeing] the whole point of this; to create community.
When you start thinking about where you stand in that community and start overthinking your place, it can really stop you from seeing what's important: working with each other and meeting new people. And what a blessing it is to have this thing that we can all share! Punk is the lens that I see the world through. I'm sure to some people that sounds really corny but it's just the truth. I've been punk forever and I'm gonna see the world in a specific way probably forever because of it.”
What a way to start this year.
