A Very Aggressive Angel Du$t in Columbia

Photos and Writing by Audrey Wilson

On Monday April 22, Baltimore rock band Angel Du$t brought a high energy show to New Brookland Tavern in Columbia, SC. For those that don’t know, Angel Du$t is a group formed by members of Trapped Under Ice and Turnstile, two big successful names in the hardcore scene. Angel Du$t is currently on their headlining tour with Life’s Question and Jive Bomb as support, hitting ten cities over a span of ten days. As an avid fan of Angel Du$t, I was excited to be able to catch their show, alongside two other bands I’ve seen before (both are incredible) and my friends in Brass Tongue (Greenville SC Hardcore) as local support.

BRASS TONGUE

The first band to go on was Greenville SC band Brass Tongue. Brass Tongue is a DIY Hardcore band that formed in early 2022 by vocalist Zeb, guitarist Tyler, bassist Justin, and drummer Brett. They just released a single titled “Face to Face” on March 30th and will be co-headlining a tour with Fixed View (Florida Hardcore) this summer. In April of this year, the band won the Upstate Music Award in Greenville for their debut EP “Dangerous World Demo” making them a staple in the music scene where I live and even further. Brass Tongue is one of my personal favorite bands to see live and it was so fun getting to see them play with other bands I thoroughly enjoy.

JIVEBOMB

Band #2 of the evening was Baltimore Female-Fronted Hardcore Punk band Jivebomb. I had seen Jivebomb before and knew they were incredible so I was excited to catch them again in a smaller venue. The band’s vocalist, Kat, has one of the best stage presences I have ever seen. Kat is the epitome of high-energy and proof that she loves what she does. In October of 2022, the band also released their debut EP titled “Primitive Desires” through Flatspot Records. Needless to say, Brass Tongue successfully set the tone for the show and Jivebomb ran with it, keeping the crowd engaged and excited for the rest of the show. Jivebomb has a full schedule for May and July and I expect the rest of the year to be no different.

LIFE’S QUESTION

Band #3 of the show was Chicago Hardcore band Life’s Question. I had also seen Life’s Question before at a hardcore festival in Atlanta so this was my second time seeing them and photographing them. The band is signed to Triple-B Records and released their album “World Full Of…” in 2022. When Angel Du$t’s tour started, Life’s Question was out due to a family emergency so this was their first show back. During their set, the vocalist made sure to remind us to tell everyone around us that we love them because life is too short to not acknowledge that. Even with some sentiment mixed in, their set was super high energy despite prior circumstances they had been faced with. The band has already toured twice this year, once with GAG and Stand Still and another with One Step Closer and Soul Blind. Just like Jivebomb, I expect the rest of the year to be super busy for them!

ANGEL DU$T

Lastly, Angel Du$t took the New Brookland Stage and absolutely crushed their 15 song set, giving us songs from A.D., Rock The Fuck On Forever, YAK: A Collection of Truck Songs, and Pretty Buff. Their entire set consisted of mic grabs and stage diving, wit the vocalist taking his turn to stage dive multiple times. One of the best parts of their set was when the vocalist got onto a fan’s shoulders to sing. He disconnected the cord from his microphone was could have been bad but the show went on by him using his guitarists microphone until everything was squared away. I had high expectations going into their set based off of videos I have seen of them and from what friends have told me but they blew me away and surpassed any expectations I had. They were one of the most fun and entertaining bands I have seen, giving us a good mixture of dancey songs with heavy songs and everything in between. If you like any subgenre of punk or hardcore music, Angel Du$t is definitely a band to add to your playlist as well as the ones that opened before them.