Event

PKEW PKEW PKEW and TBA

There might have been a time when Torontos Pkew Pkew Pkew were the sort of punk band who revelled,
unquestioningly, in the grimy chaos of the mosh pit, or an up
-
until
-
the
-
sun bender, or a skate session in an
abandoned pool. But things have
changed: the pit started to feel more like a workout, the bender gave way
to a crushing hangover, and someone broke their wrist in that abandoned pool. That doesnt mean that Mike
Warne (guitars/vocals), Ryan McKinley (guitars/vocals), Emmett OReilly (bas
s/vocals) and David Laino
(drums) will stop doing these things; it just means they realize theyre not good for them. So why dont they
stop?
Their new material doesnt offer any solutions, but instead catalogues these behaviours with unflinching
clarity a
nd precision. Warne writes in the same tongue as plot
-
driven realists like The Hold Steadys Craig
Finn, not trading in metaphors or coded language but in undressed, literalist narratives over Pkews
supercharged twin
-
guitar crunch. In the spring of 2017,
Finn himself came up to workshop songs with the
band in Toronto. You know in school when you can hand your work in early, and the teacher will read it and
give it back to you, and then you can
really
hand it in? It was kinda like that, grins Warne.
Pkew
Pkew Pkew have been on this beat for a while. Theyve opened on cross
-
continental runs with Anti
-
Flag
and The Flatliners, headlined dates across North America, Europe and the U.K., and become mainstays at
Pkew Pkew Pkew photo and bio.docx
punk festivals like Montreals Pouzza Fest and Gain
esville blowout The Fest. Along the way, theyve accrued a
loyal fanbase of both sports dads and young kids that wanna drink and barf on each other, Warne laughs.
While their 2016 self
-
titled debut angled more towards the minutiae of the late
-
20s punk li
fe, their new
material steps back to look at the root causes.
Is this good or is this bad? Warne ponders of the lifestyle Pkew sings about. Its fun to live like an idiot, but
its probably bad, also. Were all constantly wondering if weve ruined our l
ives forever or not, being in a band.