I've been waiting to see MSPaint since their debut album came out in 2023. Last night, I finally got the chance when their headlining tour rolled through Minneapolis. And I wound up bailing early. Are my rockin' days behind me? GASP! Read on for more. 

MSPaint have a great "thesis statement" for a band: They set out to see if they could make scuzzy punk/hardcore without guitars. Spoiler alert: they can. MSPaint sounded great and played many of their best songs from their debut album and their follow-up EP. Unfortunately, their stage presence was just... kind of boring. I didn't bail too early - based on the number of songs they played, I'd guess that I caught 75 percent of their set. Perhaps vocalist DeeDee was having an off night - I've heard that the band is well known for their energetic live performances - but he seemed somewhat pissed off and annoyed to be there, stalking from one end of the stage to the other and no real effort to engage the crowd. Again, they sounded good and played the songs I wanted to hear, but nevertheless their set failed to grab me. 

It could also be that the two opening bands were much more energetic. While not necessarily my thing, Lip Critic's heavy hip-hop inflected electronic music (with dual drummers!) was a huge hit with the crowd. They seemed to have pulled a large chunk of the crowd, as many people were singing along and seemed to know all the words. They were fast-paced and strange and anything but boring. 

Pat and the Pissers had the most conventional punk sound, but were my pick for the most entertaining band of the night. The band's frontman (not named Pat!) worked hard to engage the crowd and constantly bounced around the room like a pinball. Despite mostly delivering fairly straight-ahead punk, they also showed surprisingly strong musicianship, with a lot of interesting and unexpected time changes while keeping things tight. If these guys show up on future bills in town, I'll definitely go out of my way to catch their set.