Gloom Girl MFG/Photo: Gloom Girl MFG

Gloom Girl MFG is an exciting indie-punk effort that exceeds every expectation it never asked for.

Formed in January 2022 by Paige MacKinnon (lead vocals/guitar), they’ve been tearing up the grittiest clubs in Nashville (stay away, Broadway!) and I couldn’t think of a better venue than Subterranean for their first Chicago show.

Stephen Sobolewski (bass), Ethan Waggoner (guitar) and Connor McCourt (drums) comprise the rest of the band and drive the wild contemporary punk rhythms to instrumental supremacy.

I had a chance to speak with Paige and we covered important topics like chairs, music and weather.

Touring off the May 3 release of their EP “Polycrisis” for their first-ever show in Chicago, this is liable to prove an important moment in the history of Nashville’s most exciting new product.

“Polycrisis” is produced by Brad Shultz (guitarist for Cage the Elephant), which is insanely cool but not the reason you should listen. You should listen to “Polycrisis” because it’s awesome. And because the name is epic.

But mostly because of fast-paced punk pieces like “Batshitlorette,” a simultaneous tear-down and celebration of Nashville bachelorette-party culture. Or “Bougie Girl,” which fantasizes (and mocks) about how much fun it would be to, well… There’s a good chance Paige and Co. might live that one out sooner rather than later. Listening to this one on headphones felt forbidden.

So I asked Paige how it plays live.

“I’m in full Gloom Girl character when I’m on stage. It allows me to do really crazy things.

“And that’s important to me because I want these shows to be an escape from reality. For us but for the audience too. The name for ‘Polycrisis’ came because of all the shit happening all over the world is making us a little crazy. And individually—as a band—we’re also all over the place. So I want people to be able to come to a Gloom Girl show and be like ‘phew, at least there’s that.’”

But within “Polycrisis” there’s this wonderful weight balanced on the other end of the emotional scale. The EP is nineteen minutes, nine of which are spent thrashing to a boundary-pushing 2024 punk rhythm, but the other ten are deeply sentimental and will floor you. Paige went into detail when asked about her songwriting process: “It’s therapeutic. ‘I Love You’ is about how ugly love can make me. That it’s not just this wonderful thing. It is. But it can make me bad, jealous, angry, all these negative emotions and that’s hard for me to process. So writing is kind of how I do it.”

“Damaged” is a great example, and if there’s one song you grab from this article to go listen to right now, make it that one. Building at a slower pace than the rest of the album, its riffs rise with the speed of false hope before crashing with the even quicker swiftness of potent reality.

And poetically it is pristine:

Here’s a little number from the Zoloft bottle
there’s no time and place to numb
hid my mask above the family mantel
I’m their leopard-printed son

She’s my little prayer card for the evening
there’s no doubt, demise from here,
got a certificate to prove she’s breathing
she moves and burns my dryin’ tears,

I wanna believe
I wanna dance with someone,
I wanna deceive
I wanna grieve with no one,
You’re taking me back.
You’re taking me back.
I lost her all in a flash.

I’m just a tick in your skin
Starving our love from within.

At the time of this writing, Stephen Sobolewski is currently recovering from a violent and unprovoked attack, and may or may not be joining the band on tour. He’s doing okay.

Gloom Girl MFG is playing Subterranean, Downstairs, 2011 West North, on July 30. Doors at 6pm; show at 6:30pm. Advance tickets are $15+ fees, available at subt.net.