Upchuck and Faye Webster played Roadrunner – 10/20

Faye Webster and her Atlanta neighbors in Upchuck packed out a Friday night show at Roadrunner.

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I love a good juxtaposition. It’s a natural thing for headlining artists to pick support that’s within their genre sphere, or at least plays off their sound in some way, but it’s often more fun when a bill just goes in two wildly different directions. Take last Friday at Roadrunner, where singer/songwriter Faye Webster held court for a sold-out room and invited garage punks Upchuck to warm things up.

Fresh off the release of their new LP Bite the Hand That Feeds, the Atlanta five-piece kicked up the dust during a slot where most early-arrivers were probably expecting a bit of subdued strumming. There was little in the way of that during a raucous set led by vocalist Kaila Thompson, which ranged from riff-y ragers to sludge-punk bruisers and sent multiple members of the band into the pit and the crowd – to the evident surprise of at least a few attendees. The kids may not have been entirely prepared for it, but they certainly had some folks moving by the end of their time.

Webster’s headlining set was naturally a less boisterous affair, but her live show has grown to comfortably fill the sizable venues she now inhabits. Joined by a four-piece band (highlighted by some expressive pedal steel guitar) and a visually dazzling backdrop manifesting elemental and meteorological complements to the songs, Webster had a devoted crowd hanging on her every word. We also hadn’t seen the last of Upchuck, who returned towards the end of the night as Webster’s hypemen and pulled off some rare indie-folk-rock crowdsurfing.

Scroll below for photos from both sets.