Zipper, Early Grave, Vile Enemy, Agonesiac
Cousin Danny's
5001 Market St.
Philadelphia
Feb. 5, 2026
First of all, shoutout Cousin Danny's. I have to say that one of the things I truly love most about this filthy ass city is that one of my favorite places to hang out and hear music that I love is Black-owned. I’ve been going to shows at this spot for basically a decade, which is fucking insane to type. I know this because I remember when Precolumbian and Bearcat were doing the Seltzer gigs and threw a particularly insane one around the time that Cardi B released “Bodak Yellow,” which had to have been 2017. And by the time that show happened, I had been going to Cousin Danny's for at least a year. Every DJ that performed played the song that night. I remember going from the bar on the lower level where everyone was screaming the words, to the upstairs dance floor (which was a different climate entirely) and people were legit moshing to it. There’s no way that night didn’t contribute to the floor needing to be reinforced.
Happy Black History Month.
I’ve seen all kinds of shows there, a straight up punk gig being the kind I’m at most. I usually don’t mind punk time now that I don’t have to get up for work in the mornings, but as I sat at the bar rubbing my lil coins together to buy drinks (my failed attempt at Dry January has now bled into February), I couldn’t help but watch it go from 7:30 to 8:30 without hearing anything from upstairs. It was about 8:20 (doors were at 7 p.m.) when I asked myself: “Man, what the fuck is going on?!” And then, d r u m s. “Thank God, fucking finally,” I said. I learned at the end of the gig that Agonesiac, who share members with Diuretic and Subtle Body, had to drop because someone got sick. Winter wins another one.
Once I got upstairs, Vile Enemy was starting up. Singer/guitarist Stabby’s tone is raw as fuck, to the point where her guitar playing felt like a blade being laterally pushed into my skull. She matches it perfectly with a voice that was equal parts snot and scream. Vile Enemy’s live presence very much comes through on record as well; their style and songwriting kinda explores a number of avenues of punk, from '80s style American HC to d-beat to street. I didn’t get a video because I suck, but you can check out their shit down below.
Right after Vile Enemy was Early Grave, who are one of my favorites and easily one of the best new Philly punk bands. I’ve struggled to find a reference point for their thrash-punk style aside from “crazy" and “linear" and “crazy linear,” but thanks to my very knowledgeable friend Yoni Kroll’s excellent 2025 Year In Music review for MaximumRockNRoll, I’m now listening to Indigesti for the first time and it slaps pretty damn similarly, as he recommended. All I really know is that Early Grave is consistently perfect. An unrelenting power-trio for the ages. As I write this, I am listening to their crushing new Winter Promo that just dropped today. Cool.
2025 Year End Top Tens, Part Four - MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL
Zipper closed with a set of great coming-apart-at-the-seams hardcore that repeatedly gifted the audience with mosh parts that were truly good for the soul. The guitars in this shit rip on some straight up rock-n-roll riffery, and the vocals just sound psychotic, like dude is coming out of his skin in front of us.
Midway through Vile Enemy’s set, Stabby revealed that the drum kit that their drummer Benny was playing on belonged to our mutual friend Dylan Justice, who tragically passed away a little under a month ago. Dylan was a friend to all and an ass-kicking musician and, to be honest, his death was the reason I started drinking again midway through last month. Right after that, though, she told everybody there that the kit would serve as the house drums for the venue moving forward. It was a really nice moment, leaving me inspired and a little reassured to see that the general atmosphere of Cousin Danny’s, where he spent a lot of his time, is now infused with his spirit.
At my age, life still has a whole lot to offer me. With increasing frequency, though, it takes. It takes people and things away; each loss a warning that it will happen again, and again, and again. I can’t know when the last time I’m going to play at Cousin Danny’s is. I couldn’t know the last time I talked to Dylan would be the final time. As it keeps happening, it will at least be nice to be able to hang out at Danny’s until I can’t anymore, watching friends and strangers alike banging out rhythms on his drums. He would’ve loved that.
