Arriving at the dark, liminal space of Bar du Curling, we’re immediately met with Brooklyn punk outfit Mary Shelley. Young, energetic, and full of that signature New York piss and vinegar, it doesn’t take long to start bouncing off the walls alongside this scrappy, genre-fucked four-piece.
Though some bands have had to work hard to earn their dancefloors this FME, this didn’t seem to be an issue at all for Mary Shelley, who commanded our attention and energy from the outset. After grabbing us by the hair, they shredded through an impressively intense set full of hard-punk, literary, IDLES-style lyrics, and jangly indie pop all rolled into one. There’s seemingly no influence or genre out of bounds for Mary Shelley, blending shoegaze, post-punk, and even bits of pieces of hip-hop to produce an altered state that I still can’t quite explain. Swapping instruments, swapping sounds, and crushing beers. Anyone worried about the death of punk is simply unwilling to recognize this reanimated lifeform as the real thing.
Like the author they’re named after, Mary Shelley is a frightening, exhilarating subversion of whatever it is you expect going in—even if you arrive with no idea who they are, both old-fashioned and totally novel.
Photos by Jacob Zweig
