Our country’s 250th anniversary was co-opted by people currently running things into the ground. Add in the fact that it landed in the middle of a heat wave and a drought, meaning fireworks felt less celebratory and more like a fire risk, and you get a weird day for any capital-P patriotism.
Instead, it made a 55-minute drive out to a skatepark in Greensboro to watch four punk bands feel like the only correct way to spend the day. And as luck would have it, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to drip sweat for a few hours instead of the standard Fourth of July gamut.
It was a fitting room for the occasion. Above Board is a working skatepark, not a converted venue playing dress-up as one. About a dozen skaters buzzed around all night, wheels rolling under the songs like a built-in rhythm section. The show doubled as a community event, with free vendor space for local artists and no fees or pitch required to set up a table. That diversity showed in the crowd, a real mix of ages, from visibly new-to-the-scene teenagers with fresh hair dye jobs to tatted-up veteran punks and parents alike.
This is also the kind of show that only happens when two labels have connections with and trust each other. Boared to Death Records runs the North Carolina end of things and puts out Tenderqueer and Narsick. Fruit Punk Music is the Brooklyn label run by Lady Lychee‘s Emma Rogers, and it’s the reason Lady Lychee and Jack Flowers & The Petal Tones were in the state at all. Hours of driving and a state line separate the labels on paper.
That’s largely because the bill was built on overlap, not just proximity. Lady Lychee and Jack Flowers & The Petal Tones share members and are both mid-tour, meaning the “touring band” and “local band” split that usually defines a bill like this barely existed. It felt like a bunch of friends getting together, and it showed in how the crowd behaved. Nobody was waiting around for the “real” band to show up.
Tenderqueer opened and set the tone: a tight, high-energy queer punk trio that leans into riot grrrl’s oldest and best trick, channeling justified anger into something productive instead of just being pissed off into a void. They got pleasantly loose at the edges when the songs got heavier, but their tightness never actually slipped. Their guitarist Devin and bassist Kristi traded vocal lines throughout the set, giving the band a call-and-response energy that can be hard to pull off. On a bill full of bands making a case for anger as a productive tool rather than a dead end, Tenderqueer made that case loudest and first.
Narsick, up from the Triangle, ran hotter and more aggressive, with a vocalist in Ash Graña who leans theatrical against a band that stays locked in with some serious slow-build dynamics. While Tenderqueer traded vocal duties between two distinct voices, Narsick centered on one, giving their set a different kind of intensity. The punk rage and ferocious breakdowns paid off every time. This is a band that understands the difference between playing a set and putting on a memorable performance – even while costumed in near-triple-digit temperatures.
Lady Lychee brought the harder-edged, hardcore-adjacent set of the night, something in the neighborhood of Mannequin Pussy if you need a comparison. It’s a heavier, more physical sound than the touring band’s easygoing offstage energy suggested. Emma Rogers traded her keyboards for a guitar, but occasionally left it aside to grab the mic, bounce around, and scream to her heart’s content. From my view on the top of a nearby half-pipe, it was simply infectious to watch play out.
Jack Flowers & The Petal Tones closed things out in a completely different lane: keyboard-driven, danceable, glitchy punk meets electronic pop without losing the bite. It worked as a closer precisely because it didn’t try to out-heavy the bands before it. Frontwoman Jack Powers held the set together as the band leaned hard into cuts from their debut album girl clothes, running through the gritty, glitchy tracks with impressive technical skill and crowd work. Greensboro was stop four on the band’s first-ever tour, and it showed as the band rode the high of playing so far out-of-state.
After the show, Jack was open about what it took to get here. There was a time she thought she’d had to choose between coming out and being a professional musician, and she hopes to be the representation she didn’t have growing up for the young trans people who need it now. For the entire touring party, the takeaway was how much a night like this stands out compared to another New York or North Jersey gig. “Some of the best shows to play are farther out in the country where there’s less saturation,” Jack said, and the rest of the band backed it up without prompting.
It stuck with me as I made the drive back home, right as July 4th was transitioning into some other summer day without baggage. We’re fortunate to have such a welcoming, inclusive music community, and it was refreshing to see it in action from both a local and a visitor’s perspective. Hats off to Dan Mitre from Boared to Death Records, Emma from Fruit Punk Music, and every single person who came together to make this show one to remember.
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