Puppy Angst at Ortlieb’s
I’ll write a whole love letter to Ortlieb’s one day, but for now this could suffice as a note on quintessential city rock. You know what I mean?
If you don’t, the name ‘Puppy Angst’ actually captures the essence quite well. It’s pent up and punky, but it’s also …. So cute.
Puppy Angst closed out their tour last night with a firey hometown show at the Philly legends spot Ortlieb’s. A 10 day tour that took them along the coast and perhaps further than they thought? I didn’t recognize the list of venues they booked from Baltimore to Nashville to Rochester, New York. But after last night’s performance, I think I’d like to know more. The five-piece band is led by their songwriter Alyssa Milman, whose beat up heart is something she committedly wears on her sleeve.
Loud songs, louder music. I love a rock band with a front woman. Puppy Angst describes their tone as “puppy love but a lil more sad.” It might sound blue, but I can see that red is a motif for the band. The hair, the dresses, the heat. A beating heart is a bleeding one and Puppy Angst expresses both with their lyrics and heavy instrumentation. A lot of their songs tap into the moments of regret we feel sometimes after letting our feelings get ahead of our thoughts. Those late night, restless dialogues we have in our heads about what we should have said in the moment, or what we definitely will do to stand up for ourselves next time. It’s the self awareness that a situation sucks, with the turmoil of knowing we can’t help but feel attracted to it.
Right now, my favorite song by Puppy Angst is Moths. “Why do I stick around when I know it’s not right for me // it’s like a mouse to my cat, it’s like I’m never coming back, it’s like you know I’m gonna be right back.”
Cry cry it’s so pathetic. But I think that’s what makes good art. With songs like Moths, I’m back in my high school bedroom drowning my thoughts in shoe gaze. I’m rolling my eyes at people I pretend to not adore. These are songs that make you feel a lot inside, but they don’t necessarily call for jumping or moshing or paying attention to anyone else in the room.
And Ortlieb’s is a great place to be. Congrats Puppy Angst on a tour well done and cheers to what happens next. If you appreciate bands like Modern Baseball, Modern English, or that Brie Larson song from Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, I would keep an eye out for Puppy Angst and that devastating case of puppy love.
