By James Ferency, Rock At Night Detroit Correspondent
Venue: PJ’s Lager House, Detroit – November 13, 2015
The Pests Members: Steve Halprin -vocals/guitar, Chuck Diesel – bass/vocals, and Mazz-1 on drums;Genre: Post punk; Home Town: New Orleans
Punk music has been alive for nearly half a century now and has shaken the world with loud, hard, fast riffs; tell-you-how-it-is lyrics; and in your face “no effs” given attitude – and we can’t get enough of it. I bring up punk rock only to talk about a band that has lived post-punk music for decades. The Pests are one of the longest standing punk bands out of New Orleans, founded in the early 1990’s. Through the years they have lived the spirit of punk music. The Pests are made up by enthusiastic front man guitarist/lead vocalist Steven Halprin, the eccentric personality and good vibes of Chuck Diesel on bass and backup vocals, and the high energy and showmanship of Mazz-1 on drums.
PJ’s Lager House on November 13 was the first stop The Pests have made in Detroit in their time together, and I would like to add it was an honor to have a drink and share in conversation with the boys. The venue itself was about as small as they come and the sound systems couldn’t take the full power of grungy beautiful punk rock emerging from the speakers. The crowd had to warm up to the strange persona that took the stage that I would define as “professionally drunk”. Like I said, The Pests live punk. You don’t just see it in their appearance or hear it in their music, their personalities as individuals and as a whole drip “we-don’t-care-what-you- think, we’re here to blow out eardrums” in the best way.
The Pests have a new music video for their song “She Said Hi” that’s raunchy and hilarious. “She Said Hi” lyrics address something that no woman wants to deal with but will mostly likely have to more than once… complete creeps. The song itself is incredibly catchy and hilarious and the music video is definitely worth watching at least once.
The Pests – “She Said Hi”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4y3yxCXxzk
Photo Gallery
Other News!
The weekend of Thanksgiving in New Orleans the band will perform a special as part of the annual Rock Art Circus – Giving Thanks to Native Americans, to pay tribute to and recognize the American Holocaust of Native Americans in New Orleans. This annual event continues in support of the United Houma Nation, where the United States Government will not recognize them as a Tribe! 504 Rock Art Circus is a movement of people supporting the underground art & music scene of New Orleans.
Watch for a new album be released in 2016 from The Pests, including “She Said Hi” and possibly other songs containing valuable life advice!
Keep up with them and buy merch here: http://therealpests.com/
Follow them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheRealPests/
- Second Annual Dick Wagner charity event fills the Fillmore with legendary talent - February 23, 2016
- Lights brings her electro-soul music and positive message to Detroit - November 27, 2015
- Post-punk band The Pests bring their eccentric and fun music to Detroit - November 18, 2015
