Review: Sometimes you have to crowd surf when punk band Hot Mulligan comes to Charlotte
I’m not sure if I was allowed to crowd surf on the job on Tuesday night, but I did.
I couldn’t help it. And neither could the slew of fans who jostled above the thrashing crowd at The Fillmore.
I call it The Hot Mulligan Effect.
The Michigan emo band’s cathartic performance in Charlotte featured the band’s newest album, “Why Would I Watch,” in its entirety.
The 2023 release already delivers a dagger to the heart on every listen. But on the nearly sold-out “Why Would I Watch” Tour, lead singer Nathan “Tades” Sanville twists the knife with every hearty scream and acoustic coo while the band’s trademark banter seamlessly guides fans through the unconventional songs that make you feel like you need to sign up for therapy immediately.
The album, widely heralded as the band’s best, delves into heavy subjects largely tied to mental health, spiraling inner thoughts and bleak family relations. Two days before Thanksgiving — a holiday notorious for not just its food, but the slights from family that come on the side — it was sold out.
But on Tuesday night, the five-person band didn’t dwell much on what their songs are about. Fans know, and newcomers will figure it out.
Though Sanville claimed early on that “My voice is shot,” the Mucinex he said he washed down with a beer before the show must have worked. The set — the fifth I’ve seen in about two years — was their best yet.
There were only two microphone stands for guitarist and vocalist Chris Freeman and guitarist Ryan “Spicy” Malicsi; a spot for bassist Jonah Kramer; a loose, wired mic suited for Sanville’s spins and jumps; and a drum kit manned by Brandon Blakeley tucked as far back as possible.
They needed all the room they could get.
The band bounced across the stage — screaming, harmonizing and head-banging — in a way I can only compare to torpedoing boomerangs. Meanwhile, fans echoed the gut-wrenching lyrics from the mosh pit to the merch tables and back up to the barricade.
Hot Mulligan is one of the few bands that has navigated a larger pop-punk resurgence — reminiscent of the late 1990s and early 2000s — in a way that’s not yet been overdone. That’s thanks to their vulnerability and unique “post-emo” sound, a mix of emo/screamo/punk/post-hardcore.
They first stepped on the punk scene in 2015 and caught a band of loyal followers with their 2018 album “Pilot.” Now, their increasingly veteran status — reflected in their No. 1 Hot New Band title and campaign — is showcased in this tour in a surprisingly refined way.
“Welcome to Yams Fest!” Sanville said after the first two songs.
Some knew what he was talking about, others pretended. We all laughed. He explained: Yams was the first “DIY booking dude” who booked the band in North Carolina. Now, to him, every show in the state is Yams Fest.
The name seemed particularly appropriate as lyrics about Sanville’s thoughts on family, religion and the anxiety both bring to the table would soon fill the room as Thanksgiving Day loomed near.
But Tuesday’s show would be best served with a side of Puffs tissues, ice packs or maybe a Cook Out plate — something Sanville would commit “unspeakable crimes” for, he joked.
Sanville’s tangent about Yams trailed off as he suddenly shouted “Old songs!” before launching into back-to-back performances of “OG Blue Sky” and “*Equip Sunglasses*” — two hit songs from the band’s 2020 album, “you’ll be fine.”
“It is indeed the ‘Why Would I Watch Tour,’” Sanville said, gearing the crowd up for a seven-song stint from the album of the night. “Which means we’re going to do a lot of songs that are really f---ing hard.”
The band launched into “And I Smoke,” a song about regulating anxiety and never quite feeling alone, before breaking for a few seconds of conversation about Sanville’s stubbed toe.
Fans knew what was coming. It was one of the bleaker songs on the album — “Christ Alive My Toe Dammit Hurts” — with Sanville and Freeman singing over upbeat, dance-worthy chords:
When did wanting to live start to go out of fashion?
You laugh and say ‘Same’ when I say I’m unhappy
Just stop
The song is the epitome of what, in my opinion, Hot Mulligan does best. Their songs’ clean yet clashing composition lure you in. But once the lyrics sink in, you’re left with a multilayered love for a song that is simultaneously too damn good and too damn sad.
“This song has the dumbest title we have ever written,” Sanville said before Freeman delivered its name the same way he did during this summer’s Sad Summer Fest and the few headlining shows Hot Mulligan broke away for during the festival’s run.
Two nostalgia-packed songs, “This Song Is Called It’s Called What’s It’s Called” and “No Shoes in the Coffee Shop (Or Socks),” attached to an anecdote about the time Freeman walked into a coffee shop barefoot, rocked the floorboards before the band left the stage for the first time during the night.
Then Sanville did something I’ve yet to see him do. He sat on a stool, held an acoustic guitar and sang — alone.
“No one likes this, no one ever likes this.” he said. “… I don’t like it either.”
The song, “Betty,” is the only acoustic song on the album and one of few acoustic songs in the band’s more than 70-song discography. It’s about his dead pet, Betty — the best pet rat there ever was, memorialized in these lyrics:
Got her ashes from the vet today
I can’t look at them or find the proper place
She used to sleep tucked in a tiny ball
Used to listen when I sang her favourite song, oh
As the band returned to stage, I wiped a tear from my cheek...
A few songs later, Sanville belted out two very different songs about his family.
In “Shhhh! Golf Is On,” he wishes for the day his mother, who is perpetually becoming “a worse person,” is gone.
But in “Smahccked My Head Awf,” he sings about how time left with his grandma is slipping away as her memory fades.
I can see your age
It’s in your face
Every wrinkle to a year I can’t replace
Another tear welled up in my eye, falling as Sanville sang:
Would you remember if I never left?
I should’ve stayed
At the end of the main set, the stage emptied and went dark, as pleas for “One more song!“ rang out. It was “one of the worst chants” the band has heard on tour, Sanville said.
And yet, not one, but two more songs followed.
“How Do You Know It’s Not Armadillo Shells?” a 2018 song about insecurities and loneliness started, and I hoisted myself onto the crowd’s raised hands as some of the last lyrics of the night played through the venue.
Both Freeman and Sanville (and I) sang:
Pullin’ out the pages that I wrote for you
Hopin’ you don’t think that I’m dependent ‘cause I know the truth
Might be too much, I’m not enough.
I’m always disappointed in the things I write*
(*Author’s note: Welcome to my life as a journalist...)
Finally, “Bckyrd,” again off of “you’ll be fine,” closed the set with a reminder of the reality of adulthood’s harsh realities.
Seems like a jolly night, right?
Yet, as the masses filed out and into Tuesday’s unrelenting rain, nearly everyone who walked past the marquee sign outside the venue stopped to take a photo with a giddy smile and a new shirt cloaked over their shoulders.
Behold, The Hot Mulligan Effect.
Hot Mulligan’s setlist
1. “Shouldn’t Have a Leg Hole But I Do”
2. “It’s a Family Movie She Hates Her Dad”
3. “OG Blue Sky”
4. “*Equip Sunglasses*”
5. “And I Smoke”
6. “Christ Alive My Toe Dammit Hurts”
7. “This Song Is Called It’s Called What’s It Called”
8. “No Shoes in the Coffee Shop (Or Socks)“
9. “Betty”
10. “Cock Party 2 (Better Than the First)“
11. “Gans Media Retro Games”
12. “Digging In”
13. “Drink Milk and Run”
14. “Shhhh! Golf Is On”
15. “Smahccked My Head Awf”
16. “Losing Days”
17. “Featuring Mark Hoppus”
18. “John “The Rock” Cena, Can You Smell What the Undertaker”
Encore:
19. “How Do You Know It’s Not Armadillo Shells?”
20. “Bckyrd”
