Big Ups played Great Scott – 1/12

Boston bid farewell to NYC punks Big Ups, who played their penultimate show at Great Scott on Saturday night with support from Kal Marks, Lilith and Fucko. 

Big Ups were not a band I got to see very many times during their tenure, but they were something special on every occasion. The quartet’s twisted amalgam of punk, noise rock and post-hardcore was best experienced from the stage – partly for the physical punch that only an airtight band over a dangerously loud club PA can provide, but mainly for vocalist Joe Galarraga’s intense, funny, occasionally alarming and frequently crowd-interactive presence.

November’s announcement of the band’s indefinite hiatus saddened many, but the run of farewell shows that they’ll wrap up with a final gig at Bowery Ballroom this Friday night sent them out on a high note. Topping a monster four-band bill at Great Scott and playing to a crowded house, they never sounded better to my ears.

Fucko‘s fuzz-damaged jams, a more melodic turn from Lilith and the idiosyncratic noise rock of our beloved Kal Marks rounded out the night in proper Boston fashion. Check out photos from every set below.