PILLLAR’s Alt-rock & Punk fundraiser for Palestine

By Nae Olson

On February 8th, PILLLAR hosted a show featuring 7 local punk and alt-rock bands (Mystery Meat, Atomic Nun, Collective Ex, RiGBY, Shit Dumpster, Odd Prospect, Van Was Here). The event was organized by the John Brown Revolutionary Society and raised a total of over $1000 for Palestine by the end of the night! In addition to donations, 60% of the door fees went to Samidoun, a network providing relief to Palestinian prisoners. The music was fantastic, with a wide range from chill, bass-y rock songs, to high-octane, adrenaline pumping aggressive punk.

A few of my stand out sets from the night include Atomic Nun, RiGBY, and Shit Dumpster. Atomic Nun is a noise rock duo with some earth shattering bass. You could feel every one of their songs rumbling through the ground and up into your chest. These guys were raw, guttural, and one of my favorite noise projects I’ve had the pleasure of seeing.

RiGBY, a very energetic and queer punk group, started strong with a song cursing the ever-infamous Elon Musk (which was extremely fun to mosh to, by the way). This group kept up an incredible energy, and you could feel the crowd get hyped up from their performance. This group is very active and plays locally all the time. I highly recommend checking out one of their shows!

My favorite set from the night was Shit Dumpster, which I feel needs no introduction based on name alone. This group brought a very classic punk-rock vibe to their performance, creating the most aggressive pit of the night. This band had me jumping, shouting, and falling directly on my ass in a wild, passionate, rage filled set that has me itching to see these guys when they have a longer set to show off their music.