It’s been a wild year for Potty Mouth. After releasing a full-length on Old Flame Records this past fall, the all-female Northampton punk outfit and current GEN F subjects are making time to polish a new crop of songs, a few of which they debuted last night during a special Brooklyn Bound performance at Converse Rubber Tracks. Before their set, the crowd vibed to DJ Lindsey’s hand-picked selection of new wave and pop while sipping on “Reyka Mules,” a cocktail that paired the smooth Icelandic vodka with fizzy ginger beer.
Later, when Potty Mouth hopped on stage, it was with an energy and attitude that you’d expect from a band that’s played a ton of shows in the last 12 months. Catchy-as-hell album standouts “Rusted Shut” and “Sleep Talk” sounded sharper than ever, and the four-piece looked as comfortable here as they would in a sweaty New England basement packed with undergrads. Today I woke up and the second thing out of my mouth was a sigh, frontgirl Abby Weems sang on a new track that sounded dry, melodic and more aligned with the slacker indie rock that their western Mass community is known for than anything on Hell Bent. “Is my lipstick smeared all over my face?” Weems wondered aloud at one point, before deciding she didn’t really care. “Maybe it will look cooler that way.”
They wrapped things up with “The Better End,” the acidic, slow-crawling Hell Bent closer that typically ends their sets. It’s a breakup anthem, but not a mopey one, with lead guitarist Phoebe Harris shriek-singing lines like If I meet you in a dream / I’ll stop to greet you with a scream with a snarky conviction. This is a band that named themselves after a Bratmobile record, after all. Stay tuned for a video and exclusive mp3 download from the show, and check out highlights from previous Brooklyn Bound installments here.