Glue Kicks Up a Long-Awaited Punk Rock Rodeo

Glue perform at Mohawk for This Is Austin, Not That Great on March 3, 2023 (Photo by John Anderson)

Controlled chaos.

From the moment Austin-originating punk act Glue hit the first note until the final primal scream from the bandleader, there was no rest. No break. No chance to catch your breath. No chance to find your phone on the ground, or that hat you knew you shouldn’t have worn. It’s gone.

For a decade, Glue has been brandishing their particularly aggressive style of early Eighties hardcore enigmatically, with almost zero internet presence, and Austin shows few and far between. This mysterious reputation makes you wonder if those crazy kids you saw downtown a few years ago were even real. Friday at Mohawk, This is Austin, Not That Great fest proved you weren’t in an old-school hardcore fever dream. Glue was real all along.

Photo by John Anderson

Opening with a simple, classic riff, bringing in the almost tribal drum roll, and kicking in the bass on top of the riff – the rest was a ride to be held on to, like a punk rock rodeo. The shaved headed singer relentlessly howled directly in the faces of the audience, often extending the mic to join in the cacophony. A classic fourpiece, the band kept a steady, unwavering soundtrack to the madness in front of the stage. A boiling sea of bodies, a constant stream of fanatics jumping over the monitors to two-step and frontflip into their comrades.

During a brief microphone malfunction (no doubt due its many trips into the crowd and hard falls onto the floor), the frenzied frontman proceeded to scream the lyrics at the crowd a capella before King Kong-ing it up one of the speaker towers and, without pause, hurling his own body twelve feet into the maelstrom of human beings below.

The set list was a mix of old and new, to the delight of fans. The reclusive quartet let no one forget that forged out of the Lone Star state, there is still inventive, energetic hardcore punk rock, still rife with angst and anger. And although solitary in nature, they refuse to be ignored.

Photo by John Anderson