Photo Review: Priests at Laughing Horse Books, 6/14

Priests at Laughing Horse Books on June 14.
By MATTHEW SINGER

Washington, D.C., is no stranger to incendiary bands with a political agenda, of course. The sound of new-jack punks Priests is clearly indebted to the lineage of underground music in its home city, with scabrous guitars chafing against the elastic growls of singer Katie Alice Greer, a frontwoman from the Kathleen Hanna school of bash-you-in-the-face confrontation. Comparisons to Perfect Pussy, the nu-riot grrrl act of the moment, are inevitable, but with the arrival of Bodies and Control and Money and Power, a 17-minute neutron blast of guttural anger and stabbing satire, Priests are poised to become a critical talking point on their own accord. Though the album is steeped in references to punk past—"Right Wing," the least abrasive of the record's seven songs, is a dead-ringer for Sleater-Kinney—Greer establishes herself as a force of personality to be reckoned with.

Last Saturday, female-focused music mag She Shreds brought the band to Laughing Horse Books. Here's what it looked like.

All photos by Thomas Teal.

 

 

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