Photos by Izel Villarba
In the spirit of nostalgia, we’re taking a trip back to Show Me the Body’s show at Music Hall of Williamsburg back in 2019. Enjoy a retelling of that evening and a snapshot of that time.
Every Show Me the Body crowd makes you feel, dirty, sweaty, angry, and most importantly good, like really fucking good. You feel good because you feel welcomed. It’s refreshing to see all these freaks, punks, kids, and regular ass looking people moving til they couldn’t breathe.
Earlier in the day, sometime in the afternoon, I got to catch up with the members of Show Me the Body: Noah Cohen-Corbett (drums), Julian Cashwan Pratt (banjo, vocals), and Harlan Steed (bass), just before the night unfolded.
How do you feel about the effort put into DIY shows? Is it worth the risk of getting shut down? You guys really commit to them 100%.
Harlan: Yeah as long as it’s for your community and a constructive environment where people actually throw down dope shit and there’s cool bands and cool art going on, then that’s what up.
Noah: It’s always better to try to do something exciting and new and have it maybe not work out perfectly than to always do safe things that are legal that people have been to a million times.
What are the big obstacles you face when you’re putting together a DIY show like that? Do you think it’s getting harder?
Noah: Lack of spaces.
Harlan: We’re in a particular position right now that we haven’t been in before where if we do a DIY show and it’s not a big enough venue we’ll have to actually shutdown permanently in certain cities. It’s not cool for us to necessarily announce a show at a venue that’s too small to have us because then we might ruin it for some other people and other bands who can do that too.
Julian: Also I think DIY, especially like where we’re at right now, it’s all just about how to navigate your friends and stuff like that. If whatever you do, if the local venue lets you have all your friends there and everybody’s cool and you don’t have to go through a bunch of bullshit, that’s what it’s all about. DIY is something that you try to do. It’s not an aesthetic or a type of band, it’s just something that you try to do. It’s like going to the bathroom… or like going to a nice bathroom…. Or like putting your feet on the lip while you shit. It’s going the extra mile if you need or have to do it. For us there’s no dramatics attached to it, besides the fact that the police could come, but that’s not a reason to do it or not to do it. You’re supposed to do that if you need to do that and the cops are supposed to not make it hard for you to do that.
You said in another interview “Show Me the Body is lowkey for the freaks”. If you were outsiders looking in, what would you think of your fans and your following? Like if you didn’t know yourselves at all and saw your own show. I remember seeing you guys at MoMa PS1, I was in the mosh pit and when it ended I went to talk to my friends sitting in the back, who didn’t know about you guys or your shows, and they were like “what the fuck was that, we don’t get it, why’s everyone going all crazy for this” referring to the aggression of the pits at your shows.
Harlan: I feel like we’ve always tried to be the band that we want to see in the world. That’s part of making music for us, we literally do what excites us! Whatever gets us going and not much else besides that. There were times when we had to figure things out and learn who we were. But right now? I’d be really excited to see us play.
For more photos and the full feature, check out Issue 9 available to order now