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If you have a favorite, cultishly beloved, post-hardcore band you’ve always wanted to see reunite, these are great times. Tumwater, Washington’s Unwound have been playing some of their noisiest and most vital sets yet two decades after their initial run; Ohio’s Brainiac have been taking their wiry art punk back on the road.
The latest band in this ecosystem to spring back from radio silence is lowercase, a California three-piece whose trio of excellent late-’90s albums are beloved in certain punk circles (buzzy Danish punks Iceage count them as an influence) but never found the mainstream success of former tourmates Faith No More, nor the cult stature of Amphetamine Reptile labelmates Melvins and the Jesus Lizard.
They play at Polaris Hall on June 11, and their show doubles as a reunion for many members of the tight-knit, ’90s alt-rock ecosystem in which lowercase came up.
“It’s kind of family style a little bit,” says drummer Brian Girgus, who constitutes one half of the band’s core along with singer-guitarist Imaad Wasif. (Bobb Bruno, the alt-rock lifer best known as one-half of surf-pop duo Best Coast, will perform with the band on bass.)
The bill also features Caustic Resin, a Boise band best known for releasing a split EP with the beloved Built to Spill in 1995, and Thrones, the solo project of Salem-born Joe Preston, whose résumé as one of underground metal’s great bassists includes stints with Melvins, High on Fire, and Harvey Milk.
“I don’t really play shows that much anymore, but I gravitate towards shows that have an element of fun to them,” Preston says. “It’ll be great to hang out with those guys.”
Lowercase’s Portland show comes on the heels of vinyl reissues of the band’s second album, Kill the Lights, originally released in 1997 on Amphetamine Reptile, and their third and thus far final album, The Going Away Present, which late Unwound bassist Vern Rumsey issued in 1999 through his label Punk in My Vitamins.
A new singles compilation is also available, along with a double-sided single of rarities: a cover of the mischievous Pink Floyd song “Lucifer Sam” and a tortured-sounding original song called “Charms and Violence.”
Girgus and Wasif have written a few new songs, though they haven’t made plans to record any material thus far. “It’s certainly on a list of things to do,” Girgus says. “After this tour, I’ll be able to see the future better.”
Girgus and Wasif formed lowercase in Palm Desert, Calif., known as the cradle of the “desert rock” scene that spawned Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. They’d been friends since preschool, and though Girgus never intended to become a musician, he found himself bonding with Wasif over “pretty weird” bands like Unwound, the Jesus Lizard, and Big Black.
“I was starting to go to shows in L.A. with people that could drive,” Girgus says. “Before that, I’d only been to huge shows—Skinny Puppy at the Palladium, Siouxsie and the Banshees at a big theater in Los Angeles. Then, suddenly, I’m seeing accessible music, seeing Nation of Ulysses and standing on the stage or at the edge of the stage.”
Wasif suggested Girgus learn drums, despite not having a kit and having never played the instrument. “Within six weeks, we had four songs,” Girgus says. “I could play some beats, but Imaad was already a ripping guitar player. He had to be a little patient with me to figure it out.”
Lowercase quickly found connections in the West Coast DIY ecosystem and relocated to San Francisco in 1996, where they released three albums in four years. The band called it quits in 2000: “I think there was a lot of stress,” Girgus says. “We were on a big U.S. tour, and it felt like a grind. The shows weren’t big.”
Wasif joined the Folk Implosion, the indie-rock supergroup who’d scored an MTV hit with 1995’s “Natural One,” and later became a touring member of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; Girgus joined a San Francisco indie-rock band called Track Star. Both later moved to Los Angeles, where Girgus opened a beer and wine store and worked as a barber.
Lowercase was far from either member’s mind until the two were thrown together by circumstance: Wasif was forced to evacuate his home along with his family and pets during last year’s devastating Los Angeles fires, staying with Girgus and his partner in the meantime. (Wasif’s home was spared.)
“They were staying down here with us because they evacuated, and John [Schmersal] from Brainiac knew that,” Girgus says. “He was like, do you think you guys would want to play on Friday? And this was Monday.”
They played their first show in 25 years on Jan. 17, 2025, at the Regent Theater in L.A., and they’ve been playing intermittently on the West Coast since. A show in Seattle on June 10, also with Thrones, precedes their Portland stop.
“It was something that happened naturally,” Girgus says, “but I was always trying to keep a fire lit. I was always trying to leave some space for it to happen one day.”
SEE IT: Lowercase at Polaris Hall with Caustic Resin and Thrones, 635 N Killingsworth Court, 503-240-6088, polarishall.com. 8 pm Sunday, June 11. $20. All ages.
