Screaming Females

Like a much-needed wake-up call, sometimes you just need to see a loud, passionate rock band doing what they do best. Marissa Paternoster, Jarrett Dougherty and Mike “King Mike” Abbate have spent the last 17 years blowing audiences away as indie rock titans Screaming Females.

Screaming Females – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 15/06/2023

Screaming Females, Iron Chic, and Paper Bee at Union Transfer in Philadelphia, PA, USA

I said to myself, “Blimey! I’ve been hit in the head and have been magically transported to 1997 and I’m at a Slayer show!” but then I looked around.

The world could be on fire all around them, but Screaming Females would remain focused on the task at hand: creating a massive sound out of Marissa Paternoster’s elastic yet earth-shaking guitar lines and mighty bellow, Jarett Dougherty’s jazz-inflected drumming and King Mike’s booming but perfectly controlled bass

On the second of two sold-out nights at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, Screaming Females played a lightning-speed and volcanic-energy set. Several songs followed the loud-soft-loud dynamic that became popular in the 1990s rock, while many other songs were designed to just rock loud, fast and hard.

It was a full-on rock maelstrom as New Jersey’s Screaming Females returned to Auckland’s Whammy Bar.