Heavy Cream offered up their best loud punk rock sound at Union Pool in Brooklyn last week. The Nashville, Tennessee foursome headlined a show that began with Brooklyn outfit Boogie Boarder. Boogie Boarder was kind of charming in their youth and sense of mischief (at several points the lead singer started babbling a jibberish language into the mic between songs) but also seemed a little nervous and scattered the entire time, frequently tripping up and then declaring that they didn’t care about anything. I still have a nagging feeling that they were trying to be bad on purpose, but it’s hard to know for sure; either way, I was thankful for Heavy Cream’s following performance, which was a little kooky and definitely high-energy while also being refreshingly coherent.

The band dynamic of Heavy Cream was especially fun to watch, with each member contributing something vastly different to the band’s collective onstage personality. Bassist Daniel was cool as night, fully grooving on each song with a calm demeanor, while guitarist Mimi looked super badass thrashing her long hair around as she popped off one chord after another in quick succession. Even more intriguing was the juxtaposition created by drummer Melissa and singer Jessica (of MEEMAW); pounding on the drums with crazy energy, Melissa awesomely looked like she was having the time of her life, while Jessica looked intensely focused as she hammered out a constant stream of heady vocals while quickly tip-toeing foot to foot back and forth across the stage. Style really does count for something when it comes to live shows, and at the least, Heavy Cream has the potential to become reputable for their stage presence.

There aren’t too many great punk bands on the scene right now, so in turn there aren’t a whole lot of comparisons to make about their sound; however, it can be said that as far as new punkish rock goes, Heavy Cream is a good one. And as superficial as it may sound, it was delightful to see a band made up of three girls and one guy–a rare combination that lends an added layer of quirkiness to their brash, punchy sound.

Photos by Hailey Desjardins

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