The Garden – at Summit – Vile as Hell
May 18, 2024Not since Cain and Abel have two brothers shattered the earth’s core and enamored a crowd into a brawl of this proportion. The OC twins, Fletcher and Wyatt Shears, invoke a style of Nintendo-core sound, truly nostalgic and dripping with heavy So-Cal punk influences stemming from their father – drummer Steve Shears who was in Shattered Faith.
The Summit Music Hall is a small intimate venue that truly encourages a sense of community within the crowd to transpire. The rumors are true: the crowd for The Garden was putrid, so many masked with their weird cult-following jester makeup. I felt wildly out of place with my ribbons – especially after they started falling out en masse once the pit started to open up. God only knows what happened to my Angry Orchard can that flew up in the air – never to come back down.
The crowd for The Garden was masked with their weird cult-following jester makeup.
Being able to make it up to the front took years off of my life, while my hair kept on getting caught in the crossfire. A sweet girl noticed my struggle though, and tied my hair up for me on the side, a true moment of girlhood enmeshed with ’80s punk style.
As much as it may belie the smart bass & drum ferocity if The Garden’s music, Wyatt and Fletcher’s awkward and shy nature only adds to their charm. One of the most memorable moments was watching Wyatt twirl a bra as if he was a ribbon rhythmic gymnast while performing “This House Could Build Us a Home.”
Their sound featured immaculate, sinister melodies that echoed into a litany, inspiring a lovely sort of madness amongst the crowd. Reuniting with the magical hair-tying friend I lost during the show, we exchanged glances and immediately and unanimously concluded that we were truly love-struck by what we just saw. I was so happy to see that in the end she was also reunited with her lost shoe.
