Punk group PWR BTTM leaves out the vowels and rocks the house. Composed of Liv Bruce and Ben Hopkins, this queer band is known for outlandish live shows and frenetic energy.
Meeting at Bard College in New York, the two teamed to create a symbol of empowerment rising to the top after starting at the bottom.
Opening for indie rockers Ra Ra Riot this year brings PWR BTTM to Chicago, where fans can hear the act's latest work, Ugly Cherries.
Windy City Times: Hi—where are you calling from?
Ben Hopkins: Brooklyn. We both live here.
WCT: I just watched that movie last night.
BH: I want to be as emotionally unavailable as Saoirse Ronan. She has an amazing look. She is flawless, though. Do you like her, Liv?
Liv Bruce: I don't like anything!
WCT: Where did you two meet, in the first place?
BH: We met in a women's prison!
LB: We met in a traveling circus where I was being shot out of a cannon.
No, we met at party. It was my first week of college and I just walked into Ben's apartment. For some reason he did not call campus security, he choose to try to be my friend.
BH: Yeah, I am still working on that. That was five years ago.
LB: I was in a band at the time so at first PWR BTTM was actually an escape from my more serious band.
WCT: You played recently in Chicago, I noticed.
LB: We played at the Beat Kitchen.
BH: I used to live in Chicago so I would see shows there a lot. I took classes at Second City. My family is from Oak Park.
WCT: You are touring with Ra Ra Riot?
BH: We are and I love them. I have seen them, like, three times. I have loved them since their first record and I feel privileged to go on tour with them. We have been such a DIY band that it will be great to play at some bigger places. We have two days at Lincoln Hall.
WCT: Is "I Wanna Boi" your favorite song to play live?
LB: It is hard to pick a favorite one. I also like playing the new songs. You know how in a video game you can get a power up and run twice as fast? I feel like "I Wanna Boi" and "Ugly Cherries" are me and Ben's power-ups for live shows.
BH: I just wrote another song that we are going to work on this week that is really intense. It feels like my new power-up song. I decided to write the most complicated thing I could so it has a tapping pattern in it. I have played it enough times that I can do it mindlessly now.
Liv and I talk a lot about leveling up and improving what we do.
WCT: That keeps you both challenging yourself?
BH: Yes—it keeps it dangerous, in a way.
WCT: Are you excited about the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race?
BH: I am actually running a podcast about it called RuPaul's Best Friend Race. I am very excited about my friend Kim Chi being on it. Liv and I have become friend's with Trannika Rex from Chicago who introduced us to Kim. She could totally win the show. We are rooting for several New York queens like Thorgy Thor, Bob the Drag Queen and Acid Betty but Kim Chi is an old-school favorite of mine from Instagram. She is hilarious and unique.
WCT: What are you wearing for the Chicago concert dates?
LB: I am going to look incredible but I don't really know yet because we don't know what will be in the dumpster behind the club!
BH: I started asking people to bring things to shows and I will just wear it. If you have some weird old grandma dress that is covered in cat piss I would love to wear it.
LB: That is your aesthetic...
WCT: How will the Ra Ra crowd mix with your crowd?
LB: It might be like that movie Gangs of New York.
BH: I think the cool thing about PWR BTTM we have encountered is that it is as much for straight cis people as it is for gender variant queer people as it is also for grandpas. I don't think we should ever think of our work as having a crowd or demographic. It is for anybody that wants to come and see a fun show. It is a safe space for ridiculous nonsense.
LB: There is no one that I would be surprised to see at a PWR BTTM show. I have seen it all. It is important to me and Ben that we prioritize the safety and comfort of queer people at our shows.
When we are on tour sometimes we are playing at shows like Chicago, Los Angeles, or New York with a lot of queer space but there are other places that don't have a queer safe space. It is really important to have gender neutral bathrooms and policies so that people can't be pushed around. I think that is really vital to people who don't have a lot of safety like that because of where they live.
No one has ever come to up us and said, "I'm a straight person and don't like going to PWR BTTM shows." If they did, then I will tell them to go to any other concert, like Kid Rock!
PWR BTTM will be at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Ave., on April 8-9.
