By Brode Voigt
May 16, 2026 – Your local scene is shit. The guitarist can’t play, the drummer is deaf, and the singer has the kind of voice better suited for IT than mainstream rock.
Not to mention (as I’m sure you know) the fact that you’re surrounded by the worst people you know. Imagine if you will, being packed like sardines into someone’s living room. On your left a man with more allegations than you can count on two hands. On your right, the town’s most accredited pathological liar.
Give it two seconds and they’ll be making out. Slobbering and slithering as they sort rebellion and delinquency into the stories their kids will dream of hearing.
Oops, I was talking about Denver.
For the most part, Savannah seems to escape these characters (or at least trade them for a more colorful crowd). When I first came here, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety of the local music. It’s easy to see how the impact of the art culture here bleeds into it and I’d say the output is all the better.
That being said, tonight’s opener, People Who Care (I don’t), really challenged me; it seems some people are quicker to shoot themselves in the feet than to learn how to properly mix their instruments. Experimental music has always BEEN challenging, but with the technical skill of the duo clearly visible during their set it seemed to me that the choice to drown the drums, keys, and vocals in an abrasive layer of distortion was not intentional. I guess the most avant-garde thing to do is to create a wall of sound so muddled Phil Spector would reconsider his accomplishments.
Slideshow (All photos by Brode Voigt)
But they’re talented musicians, and I can somehow say I’m still excited to hear a proper set from them.
Thankfully, the subsequent acts quickly reassured me that the night wasn’t a complete waste.
Catzap, who has been recently booking shows like their life depends on it, immediately drew the crowd back. Not even a minute in and people were jumping, screaming and meowing (I’ve been informed that barking/howling is highly frowned upon at these shows). It’s not often you see this much hype for a solo act.
It’s well deserved. In a time where sampling and loop pedals have been getting more mainstream attention (thanks primarily to a particular duo of paper-mache Canadians) Catzap manages to set themself apart through a bouncy take on egg punk that reaches its furry fingers deep into the psych-rock scene.
They even returned to cement their musical prowess by playing drums for the closing act, Personal Onion, (a great set I unfortunately had to miss half of). I’ll definitely be looping their recent EP while I wait for their next show.
Illicit Vision (who followed Catzap) also managed to impress me. Jakob Hendrix (who is too preoccupied with metal to be influenced by his last namesake) absolutely rips. In the blink of an eye, he takes the baton from bassist Griffin Adams (who rules in his own right) and pulls the song forward with riffs that buried me in the nostalgia of Billy Corgan’s Mellon Collie.
It isn’t easy to draw from a master that well, but Illicit Vision left the crowd breathless, covered in sweat, and hungry for their upcoming single.
To eat my own words, maybe your local scene isn’t shit. Sure, not every act will leave you breathless, but there’s more than one way to zap a cat and an open mind will take you miles. Get out there, go to shows, get drunk, fight the bassist, and share cigarettes with that he, she, gay or they you’re now drunk enough to romanticize.
Best case, you meet people who care.
Worst case, they still haven’t fixed their set.
Whatever.
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