Thank Christ for Pigboat.
Just when you need them the most, they appear. When shit gets too fucking crazy for words, when the timeline we find ourselves in becomes so utterly absurd that it can longer be parsed, let alone believed, Pigboat rolls into Geno’s to wrap us all in the comforting warmth of their cheery, fuzzed-out fatalism and drop-D tunings.
And they bring unto us new material.
I, for one, am here for it. Full on.
Pigboat hasn’t played a show in Portland for years now. How long that’s been, no one can really say for sure, but Pigboat frontman and spiritual guru Mark Belanger says it’s been quite a while.
“We’ve been getting together more or less regularly to rehearse, but we haven’t been doing a lot of booking. And by not a lot, I mean close to none,” Belanger told me yesterday during a brief conversation over the wireless. “But if somebody happens to call, you don’t say no.”
Especially if that someone is the folks over at Geno’s, asking if they’d be up for opening for hardcore icons DRI.
Which is exactly what happened. Pigboat takes the stage tonight at 6:30pm, the first band on a bill that also includes Endure, Words That Burn, Candy Striper Death Orgy, and of course, DRI.
But their return to Geno’s is only part of the story; the bigger news – the thing that Pigboat fans the world over have been patiently waiting to hear – is that they’ve got new material, and they’re going to debut it at tonight’s show.
“We have an EP that’s waiting for me to get my thumb out of my ass and bring to a friend of ours to mix,” Belanger said. “It’s stuff that’s been recorded for years. New is a relative term. I think we actually started recording it during the pandemic, but I work painfully slow with this kind of shit.”
Rest assured, though, that the wait will have been worth it because Pigboat delivers.
“Show up early, stay late, and tip well,” Belanger said.
Pigboat plays Geno’s tonight at 625 Congress St., in Portland, ME, with DRI, Endure, Words That Burn and Candy Striper Death Orgy. A handful of advance tickets are still available here. Tickets at the door, if available: $30. Doors open at 6pm, music at 6:30pm. All ages.