Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers at the Bowery Ballroom

Laura Jane Grace

Laura Jane Grace was born in Fort Benning, Georgia, but her family moved frequently between military bases in Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Germany and Italy. When she was eight years old and living in Italy, Grace bought her first guitar by mail order with money saved from mowing lawns. Her parents divorced when Grace was 12 years old, and she moved with her mother to Naples, Florida. While in junior high school, Grace became a fan of punk rock, attracted to the nihilistic and anarchistic ideals of the genre. At age 13, she played bass in her first band, formed with members of her church youth group, playing Nirvana and Pearl Jam covers at church talent shows. After playing in several local bands, Grace recorded her first demo in 1996 as Against Me! Moving to Gainesville, Florida at 18, she began performing as Against Me!, either alone on an acoustic guitar or with a friend drumming on pickle buckets. After several successful albums with Against Me!, Grace announced in 2012 that she had experienced gender dysphoria since her youth and became the first highly visible punk rock musician to identify publicly as transgender. In 2016 Grace formed a side project, Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers, with bassist Marc Jacob Hudson and Against Me! drummer Atom Willard, and released a debut album, Bought to Rot, on November 9, 2018. Since 2013, Grace has lived in Chicago, Illinois.

Laura Jane Grace has pressed pause on Against Me! to concentrate on more intimate singer-songwriter material, but the new songs seemed to carry the same punk attitude when performed tonight at the Bowery Ballroom. Grace sang confessional lyrics that spoke honestly of her life's travails, laced with pop melodies and punk energy. The set consisted of all 14 songs from the Bought to Rot album, plus 10 cover songs. Grace did all the vocals and guitar work, with far more attention to voice than to lead guitar interludes. Grace's voice was clear on the gentler lyrics and gritty when she came to the angry lyrics (which was often). The scope of the songs ranged wider than with her primary band, with perhaps a toned-down flavor overall. The songs still rocked and rolled but they did not all blast the audiences faces to the wall as Against Me! has done. This was a side project done well: it was a familiar-sounding yet distinct presentation that expanded the originator's sound on all edges.

Setlist:

1. Apocalypse Now (& Later)
2. Amsterdam Hotel Room
3. Dilaudid (The Mountain Goats cover)
4. I Hate Chicago
5. Conceptual Paths (Laura Jane Grace song)
6. The Hotel Song
7. China Beach
8. Born In Black
9. The Apology Song
10. Ache with Me (Against Me! song)
11. The Acid Test Song
12. The Airplane Song
13. Screamy Dreamy
14. The Friendship Song
15. Androgynous (The Replacements cover)
16. Amputations (Laura Jane Grace song)
17. Reality Bites
18. Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1 (The Mountain Goats cover)
19. Valeria Golino
20. Manic Depression

Encore:

1. Harsh Realms (Laura Jane Grace song)
2. Take the Skinheads Bowling (Camper Van Beethoven cover)
3. Two Coffins (Against Me! song)
4. True Trans Soul Rebel (Against Me! song, performed solo by Grace)