Deviated Instinct and Dropdead
PhilaMOCA
531 N 12th St.
Philadelphia
Aug. 20, 2026
Every August, Pittsburgh hosts Skullfest, a multi-venue punk takeover of the city that hosts rockers from all over the world. Legacy acts and newcomers alike share stages, making it one of the definitive festivals of the genre in the United States. The tours that naturally get routed around Skullfest almost always include Philadelphia, resulting in shows made up of bands who will be in Pittsburgh for the weekend that you otherwise probably won’t be able to see, even if you make it to the fest. There’s simply too much going on to catch everything. I like to call these shows “The Road To Skullfest.” Every year, the flyer contains a dizzying number of bands, and this year’s edition nearly emptied Philadelphia of its usual suspects.
R5 hosted UK legends Deviated Instinct and Providence’s Dropdead at PhilaMOCA, with Tijuana’s Agonista and upstate NY’s Life Abuse filling out the bill. All four acts appeared in Pittsburgh last weekend. Life Abuse opened with a set that was equal parts political discourse and music, the first of four bands that would show that many elder rockers still care about playing fast, something people in my age group could stand to internalize more. Tijuana’s Agonista were next, flying into an awesome set of hard-hitting d-beat after mic checking with a slew of Spanish expletives. Hearing that the band got a good sampling of Philly experiences through vegan food from one of the city’s many purveyors (didn’t catch the restaurant name, sorry!) before getting to visit The Wooden Shoe, aka South Street’s best bookstore, and how much they love it here, truly made me smile. I love when visitors are able to come and experience the city beyond cheesesteaks. The band also talked about their viewpoints on current Mexican politics, and how they still feel unrepresented and actively preyed upon by new leadership while also discussing ICE as only one of many evils that we must continue to stand up against, reminding us that border patrol still exists and borders themselves serve only as arbitrary distinctions that do nothing else but function as political tools to separate working class people and undermine the possibility of a cross-cultural, unified struggle.
Dropdead were next, and out of respect for this band and what their music has done for me personally, I paused the al pastor burrito from El Salvadoreño food truck I was working on in the back of the venue. By the way, if for some reason you have never tried the food from the bus that, in my opinion, is now a staple of Spring Garden Street, you have to fix that expeditiously. If you happen to be strolling past Evan’s Gulf some weekend and see them making food outside on the sidewalk, you need to immediately come up out of $15 and take advantage of their five taco deal. But I digress. Dropdead have championed veganism literally the entire time I have been alive, and during their set spoke at length about it and many other facets of the band’s general political ideology in between blasts of potent powerviolence-influenced punk that can still rattle youngsters into changing their lives for the better. Bob Otis’ challenge of “Make this more than music” resonated long after their final note.
Deviated Instinct followed up with almost no discussion or introduction, jumping straight into their set with little time in between songs. If Agonista were hard-hitting, Deviated Instinct were a flying knee to the temple. The drums and vocals were particularly on point, and though they didn’t play my favorite track from ‘87’s Welcome To The Orgy, the undeniably groovy “Despair,” I still found myself stank-faced more than a few different times during their set. They hit a little more on the hardcore punk side than death metal compared to their on-record material, but it was nonetheless enjoyable. R5 continues to do big historical shit for the punks in this city and beyond, and I am proud to be a part of it. Check out R5’s site and pop out to a gig if you care.
