There is much pain in the world, a recession looms and we creep ever closer to the iron yoke of fascism, but none of that was felt at Main Drag Music last Thursday as Orange County ska punk band Chudson kicked off their Spring tour at the S 1st Street music store and venue in Williamsburg. The show, which also featured NYC-area powerhouses Piranhana and Royal Blush, was put together by Eel Pit, a Brooklyn-based zine and DIY promotion outfit run by Sofia Pipolo. 

The lineup brought together three distinct sounds-synth-rock, indie shoegaze, and ska punk chaos-in a space that felt like a hidden gem, tucked behind a music store and framed by staircases leading down to the stage and dance floor. 

Stepping into the Eel Pit felt like stepping into a world built by the scene itself, literary zines along with LPs and band T-Shirts available for purchase, and a broad array of talent that brought together friends, lovers and music fans alike on a crisp, end-of-winter night in March. 

Opening the show was Piranhana, a Texas-born, Brooklyn-based synth-rock duo whose debut album To What End? dropped last year. Dressed head-to-toe in all-white outfits, looking like the murderers in Funny Games, the duo stood facing each other over their synths, locked in some electric communion.Their energy was relentless: pulsing and snarling with intensity. 

Their sound was a bit Alt-J with the underlying fury from Rage Against the Machine. They looked ten feet tall, owning the space with ferocity. Their set was only complete when, with one leap into the crowd, they were brandishing bullhorns and flashlights, as if announcing the arrival of an apocalypse itself. As the feedback died out, one member of the audience turned to his mate, stating, “that’s it, I quit music.” His buddy only nodded in the direction of the stage, “Yeah, it’s done for me.”

Up next was Royal Blush, the Jersey City-based band that’s “indie rock forward with a side of shoegaze,” as they told us after the show. They hit the stage with the self-assuredness of a band that knows it is special. Fresh off their two-song release Ice Age & with their new debut EP A Ways Away set for release in May, they wasted no time proving themselves against the night’s impressive lineup. 

From the first moment Allison Heckart’s voice hit the mic, one could not help but start dreaming of a million covers you’d like to hear from her– their original music, however, brought us right back with the soaring guitars of Andrew Merclean and Patryk Sikorski perfectly intertwined with her powerhouse vocals.

Charismatic, cheeky, sexy, and truly talented, Al is a star in the making, commanding the stage with an effortless magnetism. Teddy Sidiropoulos on drums and Ed Weisgerber backing up on bass saw the band deliver a set that was tight, electrifying, and memorable. A stand-out song being Roll the Dice, a true shoegaze anthem about taking risks on yourself and going after the life you want. 

Finally, Chudson took the stage, the five-piece ska group from Orange County, California with Collin O’Connor on vocals and guitar, Kai Bixby on bass and vocals, Noah Seward on trumpet/ keyboard, Matthew Stockbridge on trombone, and Anthony Murayama on drums. The group is just burgeoning from their infancy, playing together for just about a year, yet they played with the chemistry of childhood friends who spent a lifetime in garages and basements jamming until the neighbors called the cops. 

They brought a pure, scrappy joy to the night, switching between who took vocals with each member playing multiple instruments or taking the mic themselves. At one point the trombone player singularly commanded the stage to rip through a cover of Sabotage by the Beastie Boys, with the band behind him weaving Kendrick Lamar’s hit song Not Like Us in as an interlude. You couldn’t tell if the crowd that huddled up close to the stage were girlfriends, groupies or people introduced to the band that night given how sweeping Chudson’s energy was. 

At one point, a young man, Hudson, who looked more like a fresh-faced Vanya from recent Best Picture winner ANORA than an OC gutter punk– leapt into the crowd to instigate a mosh pit. He bounced between hyping up the band and hurling himself into the tide, routinely grabbing and spinning one of the audience members around in a pseudo-punk ballroom dancing moment. This felt kind of romantic, kind of scary, but mostly incredibly joyous. 

“We’re like if Radiohead was nothing like Radiohead and they had trumpets and were like ‘we’re ska,’” they said mid-set, perfectly encapsulating their chaotic, lovable energy. If there’s a cure for the male loneliness epidemic, it might just be becoming a member of a five-piece ska band and touring the coasts of America. 

Eel Pit, Sofia’s DIY music zine and promotion project, continues to carve out a space for independent artists in Brooklyn’s underground circuit. Between sets, audience members flipped through their zines, sipped drinks, and shared their common love for live performances.To Chudson, it was only the beginning of their East Coast tour, but to the DIY scene in Brooklyn, it was another night to confirm: be it moody synth-rock, swirling indie, or full-throttle ska punk, independent music is alive and well.