Project 70 Marked a Hardcore Opening With Turnstile: Review

“I don’t know if there’s anywhere I’d rather be right now than under this bridge with y’all.”

Jem Siow was soaking up the moment with his band SPEED, which was whipping up a mosh pit and galvanizing crowdsurfers at the debut of the pop-up venue Project 70 on September 30.

Located at 4600 Humboldt Street under an I-70 overpass, Project 70 made an instant success. Skateboarders were slashing across the sidewalks outside the Denver Coliseum before the show, as people made their way under the bridge and down a long line of food trucks set up for the concert. There was even a half pipe halfway to the stage that gave the whole affair a Tony Hawk Pro Skater vibe, very appropriate for a venue debut with such bands as Turnstile, SPEED, Mannequin Pussy and Jane Remover.

After Jane Remover kicked off the night with a bizarro mix of screamo and hyperpop, the crowd was properly warmed up for SPEED, the hardcore punk group from Australia. The bandmates were so clearly eager and thrilled to be there, and it translated through the music. Crowd surfers floated along as fans flung themselves into the mosh pit, enervated by the heavy, cathartic sonics. Siow is the perfect frontman, and he had the audience wrapped around his finger. We listened with rapt attention as he made an impromptu speech about the importance of the hardcore scene, and how the band went from playing to ten people at house shows to traveling the globe and performing in front of thousands. And opening for Turnstile is particularly special: “I met those guys when I was a kid and they were gods to me…but they always treated me like one of the boys,” Siow said. “And that’s what hardcore is about.”

Mannequin Pussy took the stage next to a roar of welcome from the audience, and showed why it’s considered one of the top contemporary punk groups. The band’s sound is vast, moving into new-wave and post-punk and pop territories at times, uplifted by the powerful yet delicately effervescent vocals of Marisa Dabice, who jumped and stomped across the stage with a no-fucks-given attitude. Like Siow, she also took time to address the audience with a moving speech.

“There’s just a little something that I’ve been meaning to get off my chest tonight that’s been troubling me,” she said. “Because the thing is, I keep seeing all these conversations about how this country is turning to so-called conservative and traditional values” — the crowd booed — “but the thing is, I don’t actually care if being traditional and conservative is your thing if that’s what works for you and your life.” Some eyebrows were raised before she continued: “It’s just when you try to legislate it to make it everybody’s thing that I think it’s a huge fucking problem!” (Needless to say, the audience was with her again.)

“This is directly tied to something very insidious that is going on and has been going on…which is how desperate the billionaire class and this government is to divide the working class. And there are many different ways that they do this, but one of the most recent tactics that I keep seeing is they keep trying to ignite this ‘gender war’ that they have created,” she shouted. “So very quickly, where are all the men? I need you to know something: I need you to realize that there are hundreds of you in the audience who, as soon as I started speaking, there was a voice in your head that started saying, ‘This bitch needs to shut the fuck up.’ And that is propaganda, that is misogyny that is placed in you. … I am no misandrist; I love men. I just wish that men would learn to love themselves so much more…to do the internal work to dismantle these systems that lay inside of them that make them full of this hate and make them suspicious of the people around them. … I want you to ask yourself: What type of man do you want to be? Do you want to dismantle those systems that your fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers before you have perpetuated in this country?”

To the “girls and gays,” she said, “Do not think you are so innocent in this as well. I see the way they are beginning to peddle misandry as an online trend to simply hate men for just existing. Girls, that is the exact same blueprint they have been using for the boys for decades; do not fucking fall for it! Hate the patriarchy; learn to love the individuals and have empathy for them.”

The band launched into “Loud Bark” as the audience roared. By the time Turnstile came on stage, many people in the crowd had shed their layers, sweating from three sets of rushing adrenaline. Turnstile was the highlight of the evening; the band has been making waves for its raucous, high-energy concerts (vocalist Brendan Yates is the first to stage dive at an NPR Tiny Desk show). The group delivered a powerful set of its polished hits, opening up with the title track off its latest album, Never Enough, before going into “T.L.C.”

The crowd sang along to each of the songs as the band quickly whipped up a mosh pit and crowd surfers were lifted into the air once again. Considering it’s under a bridge, Project 70 had a good sound system that carried all the way to the half pipe (the members of Turnstile are adept skaters, as well). Between sets, people would comment on how interesting the venue was; I even overheard one Turnstile fan say this was their favorite show they’d been to in Denver. Despite the vastness of the space and quality of the stage and sound, it still felt almost like an impromptu gathering that held to the spirit of hardcore that Siow espoused early in the evening. And after such a successful opening, we can’t wait to see what else this pop-up has in store.

See more photos from the show below:

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