So I just found out that She Wants Revenge broke up last year. I had no idea they were amongst the casualties of 2020 – not death per se (nor do I mean to belittle actual tragedy), but one amongst the many comforts that have either closed, concluded, or fallen by the wayside. Total bummer.
It’s still a bit strange to me. Not that the disbanding of She Wants Revenge is the end-all be-all of musical tragedy. Far from it. They often flew under the radar, notable, yet understated in their significance to turn-of-the-millennium alternative rock. But their ending just puts a finer point on all things lost, courtesy of Covid and all its seemingly boundless impact on life and culture.
The last time I saw She Wants Revenge, I probably just took it for granted that they’d still be around. That was back in May of ’19 at Just Like Heaven in Long Beach. And pre-pandemic, that surely seemed the case, as they were scheduled to perform another all-star festival in April of last year, the coldwave-inspired Cruel World, before it too sadly died on the Covid-infected vine. When that particular event was re-announced for May of ’22, I guess I never noticed their absence on the bill.
Anyhow, none of this is how I originally planned to tackle this post.
Rather, it was going to be related to yesterday’s HEALTH write-up, sharing the connection that both SoCal bands performed at Cloak & Dagger in ’17. It seemed like a natural segue. Plus, She Wants Revenge’s primary members Adam Brevin and Justin Warfield were the founders of that aforementioned 2-day darkwave extravaganza. So the logic felt sound, and as good a reason as any to finally post more about these alternatively-minded San Fernando boys.
Curiously, I’ve realized that I haven’t actually featured any of my favorite She Wants Revenge material from their three albums and 15+ years. Only the classy angst of “Tear You Apart” made it on the blog. Here it is again, in case you missed it the first time around.
She Wants Revenge perform “Tear You Apart” @ Just Like Heaven at Queen Mary Events Park in Long Beach on 05.04.19.
Of course, there’s plenty of others, all of which take all that dark, shadowy beneath-the-surface tension, and untangle it into instantly timeless New Wave-infused post-punk drones of exhalation and release. I’m thinking of singles like “These Things” and “Red Flags and Long Nights,” which, at one point in my life, seemed to epitomize the mental mind-field of human interaction. Thankfully, I’ve mellowed out since then. But the taut enjoyment and post-Goth nostalgia live on.
I’ve only got five recordings from She Wants Revenge’s closing performance of Cloak & Dagger, including the aforementioned two. They’re fairly decent quality, picture and sound being what they are at one/two in the morning – meaning, how awake/aware I was at the time. And as stated, they each embody a favored aspect of their slightly subversive style, spanning all those well-received, albeit under-the-radar years.
Enjoy these fine selections from She Wants Revenge at the Globe Theatre on 10.21.17 … for there will be no others (that we know of) in the future to come.
She Wants Revenge perform “Written in Blood” at Cloak & Dagger at the Globe Theatre on 10.21.17.
She Wants Revenge perform “These Things” at Cloak & Dagger at the Globe Theatre on 10.21.17.
She Wants Revenge perform “Take the World” at Cloak & Dagger at the Globe Theatre on 10.21.17.
She Wants Revenge perform “Out of Control” at Cloak & Dagger at the Globe Theatre on 10.21.17.
She Wants Revenge perform “Red Flags and Long Nights” at Cloak & Dagger at the Globe Theatre on 10.21.17.
Hmmm … this post turned out to be more of a eulogy than the typical concert footage drop.
I hear that Brevin and Warfield each have their own solo projects in the works, which I’ll eventually get around to checking out, once I’m finished processing the end of She Wants Revenge. But while I still can’t believe I missed this simple fact – I hear they disbanded last August – I do understand that all good things eventually run their course, and ultimately find a fitting conclusion. I just wonder if the same thing would’ve happened minus the pandemic.
Here’s the requisite setlist as playlist …
The Joy Formidable perform “The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade” and “Cradle” to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of “A Balloon Called Moaning” at the Teragram Ballroom on 12.21.19.
