Like most do-it-yourself endeavors, the first Punk Palouse Fest — sprouting up on Moscow's main drag Friday, May 24 and Saturday, May 25 — started with a spark of curiosity.
Last summer, Moscow resident and independent pop-punk musician Alicia Gladman returned to the Palouse after visiting old friends in Tennessee and Canada and attending their scrappy, fun shows and began to wonder, "Wouldn't it be cool if these [musicians] that I go out and see elsewhere could come here?"
As a former Tennessean, Gladman imagined creating a music festival in the vein of Do Ya Hear We Fest, a noted weekend punk fest in Chattanooga. Suspecting that Moscow's "super hospitable" micro scene that "turns out for arts events" would support such a festival, Gladman voiced her daydream to two local pals, Hannah Smith and Chris Proctor, who erupted with enthusiasm and took action.
DIY, of course, isn't about doing everything yourself. A clunkier yet more accurate acronym might be DIWSFYF&C: Do It With Support From Your Friends & Community.
In November 2023, the trio of friends created an Instagram account (@punkpalouse) and announced: "We like punk, we like riot grrrl, and we're looking for bands to come play in our lil town next May."
They chose Memorial Day weekend for its sleepy sweet spot on the Palouse calendar, just as out-of-town acts gas up their vans for summer tours. "We'll just have a little pop punk takeover of the downtown Moscow area," jokes Gladman.
Word soon spread and bands near and far submitted tracks. "We had a sound in mind," says Gladman, who, while appreciative of the townie metal and hard rock acts that fill local bills, admits the Moscow-Pullman region doesn't "have the poppy, melodic, twinklier, post-punk, dancier stuff" that she fell in love with in her early 20s. The kind of punk where "irreverence" and attitude are valued more than being "virtuosic at an instrument."
Eventually Punk Palouse Fest chose 16 bands that embody those DIY punk vibes. The crew wanted to highlight local and regional acts like long-standing Moscow band Ideomotor, young Pullman punks Induce Psychosis, and Gladman's own group, the Himbos. The fest's final lineup also features bands from Boise, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, B.C., and yes, Spokane. The Globs, a self-described "punk E Street Band" from Sacramento, will travel the farthest for PPF.
Two downtown music venues, Mikey's Gyros and John's Alley Tavern, stepped up to host the four official fest shows as well as three winter fundraiser shows to help cover fest expenses and pay touring bands. Moscow's boutique Monarch Motel also offered lodging for three bands. Indeed, it takes a village to DIY.
Mikey's and John's Alley are basically on the same block and both wheelchair accessible. The early shows (5-8 pm) at John's Alley are 21+, while the late shows (8-11 pm) at Mikey's are all-ages.
Psychic Death, one of two bands repping Spokane at Punk Palouse, is a hardcore punk three-piece quite familiar with DIY's "try it" spirit and the path-altering power of a stellar show.
Though lead singer/drummer Audrey Gore had played in a few bands (surf, pop-punk, emo) while growing up in Coeur d'Alene, the now-26-year-old doubted it was possible to have a band where she could play drums as fast as she wanted and sing at the same time. But catching a hot set by Seattle harcore band Regional Justice Center at the Big Dipper in 2021 shifted something in her.
"Seeing Ian the vocalist play drums and go hard as hell while doing vocals" got Gore thinking "OK, I could do that." So she started Psychic Death.
Good thing for that push, because when Gore's behind her kit now — belting out lyrics she wrote and drumming at breakneck speed — she's as quick and fierce as a bobcat. One of Spokane's heaviest hitters. She shares Psychic Death duties with guitarist Jon Montana and bassist Jeff Glinski, himself a longtime Spokane DIY booker and player of small shows.
"DIY is at the heart of what we do," says Gore. "We make our own stuff. I love the process. I spent three hours at the copy store to cut the J cards [for cassettes]," she tells me when we meet up at Berserk, where we came to watch her bandmate Glinski play in Lipsick, the other Spokane-based group headed to Punk Palouse.
As Psychic Death gears up for a Midwest tour and tape release of Psychic Death III this July, Lipsick is at a very different point in its band life cycle.
Lipsick's late set on Saturday at Mikey's will be the group's farewell show. That's because lead singer Judy Davis is moving to Olympia to study printmaking. "I love making music, but I love printmaking more," Davis tells me when I crash the post-punk quartet's penultimate practice at guitarist James Hunt's home.
Davis' passion for print art (and DIY) is evident in the fresh batch of Lipsick T-shirts that she silk-screened and tie-dyed herself in time for the band's last Spokane show at Berserk on May 9.
Anyone who's been to a Lipsick show knows Judy's stage presence is at once commanding and vulnerable — quite literally, as she frequently performs topless, usually to a front row of mostly women who hold space for her raw power. She's undoubtedly in charge. And she got an early start.
Davis plunged into punk at age 17 when she and some high school friends slapped together a band called the Clap and entered the (now long-gone) Cafe Solé's 2004 Worst Band Competition, a ruse of an event meant to encourage youth to start bands.
The results? "We won," says Davis. Although the Clap played about 10 shows before dissolving, the thrill of performing with trusted pals unlocked a door in Davis: "I went on to start a whole weird life with James, Nat [Mooter], Jeff," her longtime pals whom Davis handpicked for Lipsick in 2018.
The band played its first show in early 2019 opening for Shannon & the Clams and self-released one tape, I Only Make Love, in 2022.
"All our songs are collaborative," says Hunt, who also played with Davis in the dancy, electroclash group Yokohama Hooks nearly two decades ago. Drummer Glinski adds, "We all kinda surprised ourselves with what [Lipsick's sound] turned out to be, what came out of us," which was more emotionally raw than he expected.
Though Davis considers herself "too moody" to play most out-of-town shows, she looks forward to Punk Palouse. "It should be really fun, and I feel like that's how this band should end," to balance "our damaged, depressing" songs. Glinski credits the intensity of those songs and Lipsick's live sets with helping the bandmates process — together as friends — traumatic personal events they endured throughout their band's five-year run.
In an Instagram post published May 13, bassist Nat Mooter reflects on the end of Lipsick while emphasizing DIY's interdependent "DIWSFYF&C" reality. To anyone still hesitant to play in a band, Mooter writes:
"I hope... you realize how easy it is to get started. You don't have to be good, you just have to be consistent. People will help you. We would never have been a band if Patty and Tim [owners of Neato Burrito/Baby Bar] didn't open their practice space to us. They didn't want rent, they said just make sure there's beer in the fridge."
The obvious goal of Punk Palouse is to be able to do it again next year, assuming the weekend goes well. However, organizer Gladman confesses she has a secret agenda for this inaugural fest: She hopes attendees get so inspired by what they see and hear in Moscow that they form bands of their own.
"Go out and try it," insists Gladman. "You don't have to be an expert. You don't need permission. Get out there and express yourself."
Perhaps some of those yet-to-be-formed bands might take the stage at next year's Punk Palouse Festival.
Gladman promises those on the verge of taking a bold musical leap, "We'll support you and stand in the front row and scream" like her friends did for her early DIY bands. As she puts it, "I wanna pass that feeling on." ♦
Punk Palouse Fest • Fri, May 24 and Sat, May 25 at 5 and 8 pm • 21+ (early), All ages (late) • $12 door, $40 festival pass • John's Alley Tavern, 114 E. Sixth St. and Mikey's Greek Gyros, 527 S. Main St., Moscow • instagram.com/punkpalouse
