A quick warning to our readers: the Mannequin Pussy show got political, and in the name of journalism, we will be forced to print language that some may find objectionable. We realize you may have clicked the Mannequin Pussy link in search of sterile, unbiased reporting on a family-friendly Wednesday night concert at Turner Hall Ballroom; unfortunately, we cannot provide any guarantee of propriety. However, we can guarantee that this review will contain fewer instances of the word “pussy” than the Mannequin Pussy concert did, if that’s any consolation.
What could’ve prompted such ranting at a concert? Perhaps it was the Wisconsin Supreme Court election the day before, the result of which the performers seemed to endorse. It started with the opening band, Finom. “Hey, congrats on last night’s election,” said co-leader Sima Cunningham shortly into their set. “We care a lot about what happens in Wisconsin. We’re brothers, Illinois and Wisconsin, we’ve got each other’s backs!”
The Chicago act was previously known as OHMME and boldly changed its name in the middle of its ascent. For those familiar with a more stripped-down, chamber-pop-ish presentation, another forewarning: this touring formation features a drummer (Spencer Tweedy) and bassist/flutist (V. V. Lightbody) and amounts to a whole ass-kicking rock band. Fans of the duo (both Cunningham and Macie Stewart sing and play guitar; Stewart plays violin occasionally) couldn’t have been disappointed, though. The two played off each other through delightfully challenging vocal arrangements and weird time signatures like always; there was simply an added gear when they felt like blasting off, and based on the already-packed venue’s response, Finom could’ve been the headliner.
When Mannequin Pussy did come onstage, it was all business at first, frontwoman Marisa “Missy” Dabice stalking the stage and pummeling the guitar like riot-grrrl royalty for a couple of the band’s poppier nuggets, “Softly” and “Sometimes.” The air rung with high-pitched screams throughout. “I’d like to commend you on beating Elon Musk today in your beautiful city,” Dabice remarked following “Nothing Like,” a rawer, less dreamy rendition than on last year’s acclaimed I Got Heaven album. “FUCK THAT FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT LOSER!!” She went on in a similar vein for a minute. “I’m not being eloquent,” she eventually admitted, “because my hatred for that man just makes me, like, insane.” Many in the sold-out ballroom vocally empathized with the insanity.
That bit of banter was nothing, though, as Dabice proved to be much more talkative than her concise songwriting might suggest. Introducing “Drunk II,” she said, “We took this song out of the set for a long time last year because I got so tired of playing it and I thought my body started rejecting it.” It’s an emotionally wrenching anthem, but it was many fans’ entry point; Mannequin Pussy aren’t big enough yet to be disregarding their “big hit.” As it happens, they’ve all but stopped playing everything else from 2019’s Patience album; they’d been forced to cancel much of the record’s touring cycle for obvious reasons, so those tunes might still be a little painful to revisit on multiple levels (although they did bust out “Clams” later in the show for the first time this year).
Then, following “I Don’t Know You,” Dabice shifted into faux-seductress mode for a grand diatribe about the band’s name and the word “pussy” in particular. There were probably some novel ideas here for younger members of the audience; however, the guitar intro to “Loud Bark” never sounded so much like U2’s “Love Comes Tumbling” before, did it? Remember, Bono got his start ranting and raving in tiny clubs, too, and Dabice doesn’t attempt to disguise her desire to command a crowd. Some might suggest a five-minute vamp like this was utterly un-punk, but theatricality has always been a part of the counterculture; some will interpret Dabice’s act as rock-star posturing, some will see it as mockery thereof, and unless the band changes its name, she can probably milk the dichotomy as long as it suits her.
The band welcomed Finom’s Stewart (who contributed vocals and/or violin to a few songs on I Got Heaven) and Cunningham back to the stage to jam along on “I Got Heaven,” and the floorboards in the old ballroom bucked under the young crowd’s bopping. This was the song Mannequin Pussy chose for their world television debut a week ago on Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney, which featured a chorus of nuns as backing vocalists. Religious corruption is a major theme in Dabice’s lyrics, a fruitful topic in punk rock to be sure, and as their star continues to rise, Mannequin Pussy are attempting to ride the fine line between calling out hypocrisy and courting controversy for its own sake. So far, it’s working.
Elon Musk aside, though, Mannequin Pussy’s flying of freak flags is about unity rather than division; their shows are known as safe spaces for misfits of all sorts, and the more popular they become, the more Dabice will have to embrace her den-mother role. “I’d like to remind you all, that you are all, all of us in this room, we are closer to having nothing than we are to being billionaires,” she said during her introduction to “Pledge.” At this point the show did shift into punk-rock mode; fans of old-school Pussy surely relished “Of Her” and “Aching,” both off the new album, as much as the actual oldies. This was also an opportunity for bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford to exorcise some aggressions vocally; he’d been an animated presence during the songs but only directly addressed the crowd one time, and his contributions reliably got everyone extra hyped.
Still, for all practical purposes, Mannequin Pussy is unquestionably the Missy Dabice show. For 75 minutes or so, she owned the Turner Hall stage, and the music was plenty thrilling enough to justify all the extended soapboxing. “So if you’re the type of person who doesn’t like when an artist you’ve gone to see makes a little speech, go take a piss, go get a beer, okay?”
Want more Milwaukee Record? Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and/or support us on Patreon.