You Nearly Missed: Militarie Gun at the Rickshaw on Friday

by Mike Usinger on March 7th, 2024 at 7:44 AM

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There’s no shortage of things to love about Militarie Gun, starting with singer Ian Shelton’s commitment to guitar-based rock ’n’ roll at a time when the world mostly seems to care about Aubrey Drake, Taylor Swift, and whoever the fuck Bad Bunny is.

North American mosh pit warriors first got to know the singer as the frontman for Seattle’s unrelenting Regional Justice Center—a band so crazily badass it can’t be bothered to make high-production music videos. And then read the comments for posted-with-just-a-photo tracks like “Dust Off”, highlights including “Best power violence band since Lung” and the beautifully succinct “Jesus”.

Militarie Gun—formed by Shelton when the COVID-19 pandemic instantly ruined everything, including the idea of touring—dials things back a bit. All Roads Lead To the Gun from 2021 came on like a mashup of ’80s midwest hardcore, East Coast gutter-punk, and Big Black if Steve Albini had been obsessed with recording for Victory Records instead of pissing the world off.

Last year’s Life Under the Gun smooths out some of the rough edges, but not to the point where Militarie Gun sounds even remotely interested in compromising, well, anything. Which explains why Shelton and his Los Angeles-based bandmates—guitarists William Acuña and Nick Cogan, bassist Waylon Trim, and Vince Nguyen—have been hailed as the best thing to happen to alternative rock since At the Drive-In and ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead-era Source Tags & Codes.

If you’re road-tripping this summer, you can see the best band you might not ever heard of—yet—at Coachella and Bonnaroo. Closer to home, Militarie Gun gives you future I-saw-them-when bragging rights at the Rickshaw this Friday, when it appears on a bill with Pool Kids, Spiritual Cramp, Roman Candle, and Vancouver hardcore heroes Woolworm.

For a good idea what to expect, consier that the San Francisco, Sacramento, and Portland shows on the West Coast swing are sold out, meaning the only dates left you can get a ticket to are Seattle and Vancouver. And, really, who needs to deal with the border?

Not totally convinced you need to go? If commerce is your thing, you’ll love that somebody at Taco Bell had the good taste to cut Militarie Gun a check for the right to use its “Do It Faster” in a commercial for the fast food chain. And before the rest of you go judging, consider Iggy Pop had zero problem okaying his ode to heroin for use in a Boston Metrobank ad. And Daniel Johnston, Feist, CSS all signed on for Apple ads.

But enough about commerce. On the art side of Militarie, check out the video for “Get High”, which, impossibly, might be as great as the song. YouTube comments include entirely accurate observations like “Feels like a Dawson’s Creek promo” and “If the Pixies was a 2000s punk band.”

The reason for all the love here? Start with “Get High” lines like, “I’ve been feeling pretty down/So I get very high.” Man, we can relate.