Holy shit, talk about pant-soiling live shows. Prior to catching these guys earlier in the afternoon, I had heard only good things about this four-piece hailing from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Fortunately, this group lived up to all the hype. The words “Oh my god” slipped out the moment I held the camera up to my face and was able to concentrate in the scene at hand.
Frontman Matt Korvette captivated the sold out audience with his stage antics (water bottle kicking, belly thursting, mic biting, thrusting the microphone into his eye, etc). The joyous smiles of everyone in the crowd told me they approved of his deliciously bizarre and eye catching performance. “Tada!” a triumphant Korvette exclaimed at the end of a particularly heavy, loose piece. Watching this man scream and writhe into his little metal wand of a microphone was absolutely intoxicating. He is the rockstar every man wishes he could be. Pissed Jeans sound was fast and loud and heavy and occasionally delved into hidden aspects thrash and harmony. They absolutely encompassed what I always thought grunge had been (a genre lost on me).
“In a sudden turn of events, I’ve been told that we have five minutes left!” Korvette exclaimed amusedly. Pissed Jeans electrifying energy shocked many — I can tell you I heard more than a handful of “Man these guys are awesome!” throughout the trajectory of the set. And, um… yeah! They are!
As I sit here now at 2:32 AM uploading photos, I’m kind of kicking myself for not having brushed up on the band’s catalogue before catching the live show. But then again, you can never replicate the experience of hearing a new band live for the first time with no prior background information. With the advent of the Internet and other such technologies, it’s increasingly becoming more common to arrive at a show with at least a snippet of information to prepare you for what you’re about to witness. Since I knew literally nothing about this band before seeing them firsthand (except for that a couple of people I knew were rather fond of their music), I feel like I experienced them in the classic 1990’s tabula rasa mentality. There was mystery, and then there was clarification. Pissed Jeans straight up kicks ass… and tell me, what’s more exciting that a good ass kicking?