Resistance in Music: Pigeon Pit Performs at The Vera Project

Maybe you’ve heard of Pigeon Pit, maybe you haven’t. Maybe, like me, you were unknowingly introduced to them through a cover of their song “Soup For My Family” in an encampment guitar circle last year, surrounded by socialists, queer anarchists, and radicals — the exact kind of audience the band attracts.

I was reintroduced to Pigeon Pit just a few weeks ago when I signed up to cover their show. They were initially described to me as “trans folk-punk.” I was hooked. I started by listening to the band's newest release, Leash Aggression, followed by Feather River Canyon Blues (which I now own as a cassette), and crazy arms. I watched their Tiny Desk concert from 2022, followed them on Instagram (@pigeon.pit), and forced anyone nearby to partake in my latest obsession. My roommate received the brunt of my Pigeon-pushing agenda, as I dragged her with me to The Vera Project on November 21st.

Located in Seattle Center beside Climate Pledge Arena, The Vera Project is a staple venue for many local artists. The walls of the entrance bear posters of past shows from the likes of Kimya Dawson, Paul Baribeau, and Car Seat Headrest. With this being my first time at Vera, I could tell right away that we’d be in good hands.

The place was filled with people of varying ages, yet similar attire: baggy and torn jeans, patched denim or leather jackets, and pockets full of nonconformist ideals. There was a sense of community as everyone chatted and perused the merch booths, lined up for coffee, or stepped out for a cigarette.

Lightnin’ Luke opened the show. His solo stage presence and guitar-playing filled the room as if a whole band was backing him. Daring us not to dance, he swapped the acoustic guitar for a fiddle halfway through his set. I hooked arms with my roommate, spinning in circles while others stomp-clapped or did the same. Luke encouraged his audience to play, calling out that all of his shows are sing-a-longs early on. He directed us to “sing loud 'n’ proud or wrong 'n’ strong.”

After a short break following Luke's set, Pigeon Pit took the stage. Without a word they began to play their first song, "run your pockets," from their album crazy arms. The song was a gentle opener for the set to come, as the lyrics reminisce on a relationship drifting away with time. Despite the calmer nature of the tune, lead singer and guitarist Lomes Oleander, barefoot and bouncing around the stage, played so intensely she knocked her hat off. The subsequent track, “Empties,” was a more upbeat, hopeful take on love and sharing a moment that may be temporary or the start of something greater.

The next few introductory guitar strums were enough for me to recognize the song that started it all: “Soup For My Family.” This song is one of Pigeon Pit’s biggest, and is certainly a fan favorite, which is no surprise given its themes of communal resistance and anti-capitalism. The premise is feeding soup to the hungry as defiance against a corrupt system. The chorus, “Please officer, you gotta believe me, it’s soup for my family,” is a sly manipulation of truth. By swearing, “No, I ain’t no part of no organization,” a humorous dig is made at the way mutual aid and socialist practice are deemed deviant. The call to “roast these piggies and sing together” is another swing at law enforcement, followed by a more direct callout: “If this thankless job has made your heart grow cold I got some chicken soup for your fascist soul.” The crowd didn’t miss a word of it. It felt cathartic for everyone in that room to sing and dance against fascism as it looms larger everyday.

The next couple of songs, “last night on planet earth” and “cherry,” are from Pigeon Pit’s newly released album Leash Aggression, which came out on November 7. It had only been out for two weeks at that point and already most people around me were screaming their heads off.

Following another fast-paced hit, “Love Letters,” everyone but Oleander and the bassist, Kay, vacated the stage. Together, the two played “keys to the city,” a song about familiarity and intimacy that transcends bonds between people, instead grounding connection to an environment. After Kay left the stage, Oleander played the next four songs solo.

Oleander sang with emotion that felt raw and new, as if she wrote these songs moments before stepping on stage. The details in her words don’t feel like distant memories, despite her discography spanning back 10 years. Much of this has to do with the reception of the audience. For them, these words are happening now. The specificity of the lyrics — and they are specific — don’t detract from the universality she’s managed to capture in them. She writes about love. Love of people both strange and familiar, love of life and all its heartbreaks, love of what we give to each other, and love of what hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps this is why, at the end of “F.M.I.D.,” the whole room shouted the final line in unison: “I’ve got your back if you’ve got mine.”

“Nights Like These,” arguably Pigeon Pit’s most popular hit, sparked a powerful scream-a-long and wild mosh pit. Post-song, the rest of the band returned to the stage.

Oleander addressed the crowd, calling out the rise of fascism and surveillance in America and encouraging resistance: “Pretty much everywhere in the world that has these things also has movements against them. It is of the utmost importance right now in this moment to be resisting the physical construction of that infrastructure of facism.”

This brief but poignant speech was the perfect lead-in for the next song, “Milk Crates,” which paints an idyllic world of love to strive for when all else seeks to repress you. The final lines, “No job, no place to get away from, I’ve been to a world worth living in / No rent, no lies to memorize / No fucked up world to drown out,” were declarations of optimistic promise that revived the spirits of the crowd as we chanted along.

Oleander summed up the band's tour experience succinctly, exclaiming, “We’re having fun with our friends,” before kicking off the final tune, “thread the needle.”

If you find yourself pained by the state of the world or stuck in cycles of relentless despair, find Pigeon Pit on your preferred streaming platform and keep up with them as they continue to go on tour. There is solace in solidarity, and that’s exactly what their music offers.

- AJ Downing