Loosey, Beauty, Highlighter Rabies
God’s Auto Body
5522 Baltimore Ave
May 22, 2026
When you dedicate your life to music, and I daresay this applies to any passion, you remain consistently surprised well into old age by all the new things to learn. If you stay open. I’ve learned two fascinating things about live performance in the last two months alone. One came to me when I was in Atlanta last April. My friend Micky’s band, Wheelie, was playing and, as a relatively new band, they only had about five songs. To make up for what would undoubtedly be a short set, they simply played their set twice. It was an ingenious solution. Since their songs are short, and the band was largely unfamiliar to the audience, it wasn’t until about halfway through the second go around that people started to catch on, and even then it didn’t matter. I simply didn’t know you could do that.
The second thing I learned I was taught by a young New York band called Highlighter Rabies who opened a show I attended at God's Auto Body last week. These yutes were added last minute, and it wasn’t until they were about three songs in that I realized their drummer wasn’t using the bass drum at all. They already had a surfy, lo-fi kind of sound that worked well for them as a young, new band, but I think they inadvertently created a crucial stylistic aspect to their live sound with this. My friend Ashley, who runs God’s, was doing sound for the show, and is an amazing drummer herself, also didn’t notice until I pointed it out.
I think if it weren’t for the proliferation of lo-fi music and artists starting from the mid '80s as music production switched from analog to digital, this wouldn’t even be a viable point to make. But when music sounds good, the imperfections either don’t matter, or add to its charm. This is a fact that jazz brought to the world. I later learned from my friend Josie, who is close to the band, that their drummer learned to play specifically for Highlighter Rabies, meaning that what some may less sensitively see as resultant of skill level, I see as unique through fresh outlook and courage. Maybe it shouldn’t have worked, but it did for me.
New Jersey band Beauty also came out sounding like a band from days past, but there was definitely kick drum being played here. Beauty very definitively played a set of 70’s-style rock, complete with guitar solos, vocal harmonies, 70’s-style outfits, and (likely unintentionally) matching moustaches. There were swaths of influence from rock royalty like Thin Lizzy, The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and ZZ Top, leaving me feeling like they were really putting the “power” into the term “power trio." Their songs were intricately written, with sophisticated stops, starts, and tempo changes to the point that I felt a deep need to see them in a larger venue, or at the very least, on a show with Sheer Mag. Sheer Mag, if you somehow don’t know, is Philly’s premier '70s-influenced rock group, who the following day played a gig at Spruce Street Harbor Park in a series of outdoor concerts put on by powerhouse DIY booking collective 4333. Additionally, Beauty bassist Nick also plays in a hardcore band called No Model, who will be appearing at the third day of the annual BIPOC punk and hardcore festival Break Free Fest in June at Ukie Club. As if I couldn’t have been more enamored by Beauty, they closed with a cover of “Born To Lose,” which absolutely brought the house down.
The Discography | No Model - Kill Yellow Fever Records
Spruce Street Harbor Park Series
The last band, New York’s Loosey, was another blast from the past with their brand of arena rock-influenced Oi! Seriously, their first song was the exact same chord progression as Andrew W.K.’s “Party Hard.” Like Beauty, Loosey had no qualms with guitar harmonies and stage moves that could’ve come from nowhere else than Pete Townshend. This is the kind of band that has you holding your guitar up like a rock god no matter how many people you’re playing to, and Loosey knows it. They played like it was their last show on their farewell tour, which let me know that they play every show like that. That, by the way, is the only way to play.
Additionally, Loosey bassist Boots and singer Fizzy are former Philly residents, so their return to the city was welcomed with open arms. My friend Devon likened them to the New York Dolls, which I definitely heard, but the Oi! influence turned it into something quite special. Without getting too deep into discussing a subculture I am not particularly well-versed in, I want to add that I appreciated very much that Loosey is naturally indicative of the prevailing truth that true skinhead culture was, is, and always has been a multi-ethnic movement that has been co-opted and unfairly perceived as the opposite. In order to elucidate my point the same way that I learned, I’m dropping a link to the full documentary about 80’s Midwest Skinheads, entitled The Baldies. Punk rules, rock will never die, RIP David Johansen, racists eat shit and die slow.
New York Dolls - Personality Crisis
Anti-Racist Skinheads Fighting Nazis: The Baldies | Full-Length Documentary
