From the moment Mannequin Pussy took the stage, the crowd seemed to be in a constant state of escalation. What began as an already energetic room steadily built into harder moshing and an increasingly relentless stream of stage divers. At the center of it all was Missy Dabice, magnetic and unpredictable, moving between snarling aggression and moments of startling vulnerability with seemingly endless physical energy.

The band tore through the set while the crowd verbally agreed “Who wants to mosh? Let’s mosh!” Somewhere in the middle of it all they added another surprise: the live debut of a brand-new song, title as-yet unannounced, played for an audience hearing it for the first time.

But some of the most memorable moments of the night came when Missy stopped to talk. Earlier in the set, she spoke about going to shows alone and how cool that can be — because once you enter a room surrounded by like-minded, creative people, you aren’t really alone anymore.

Later, she expanded that idea of community into a long, impassioned speech about class, political organizing, generational division, and the rage that comes from believing life can and should be better than what we have been handed. She warned against allowing that anger to be manipulated into turning people against one another, instead urging the audience to transform it into something creative, communal and beautiful.

Mannequin Pussy at Music Hall of Williamsburg September 27, photos by Casy Vange

“If you’re here at this show, there is a thing that I think has brought us all here together,” she said. “Because it is not every band that can say that their audience is a reflection of the people on stage, but I truly believe that what has made our band so special for over ten years is that our audience has been a reflection of the rage we feel inside. I think that you are here because you are also creative and beautiful and all you want is something better than what you have been given. Because if we are successful in bringing them down it is us who will be the ones to rebuild and we need to have imagination. Imagination requires creativity; it requires community, it requires being able to think more beautifully than the world that we have inherited. And so, I just wanted to take a moment and say that I recognize that rage that is simmering inside of you all the time, because the people on this stage feel it too.”

Then came the release. Before the final song, Missy led the audience in Mannequin Pussy’s familiar communal scream — the entire room releasing that rage together in one deafening, cathartic howl.

It felt extremely fucking good to do this again. There is something undeniably transformative about standing in a room full of people and agreeing that you’re not too cool to scream together at the top of your lungs. By that point, after a set that had continually collapsed the distance between band and audience through sweat, stage dives, conversation and collective release, it was the natural culmination of everything Mannequin Pussy had spent the night — and their careers — building.

Mannequin Pussy at Music Hall of Williamsburg September 27, photos by Casy Vange

Words by Casey Vange

Order tickets for Mannequin Pussy HERE