Mud Wrestling at the Hancock
Much like others who grew up on Tumblr, November Girl’s Willa Rudolph and Sofia inevitably fell for the queen of all that is red, white, blue, and piping with melodrama. Their love for Lana Del Rey and her Americana aesthetic set the groundwork for their event — a backyard concert held at the Moran Victorian Mansion in Bed-Stuy. Later in the night, while in line for the bathroom, a guy told me that he heard that an art benefactor bought the brownstone for Georgian artists to live and work. Think Chelsea Hotel except, not.
In the midst of all the madness, I spoke with Willa who shared the reason for the theme: "We wanted to do something fun and active to kick off summer. Sofia and I were both in my music video for November Girl’s single Keychain, which involved mud — well it was inspired by CarStuckGirls — and mud has kind of just been a theme for me, visually and symbolically. Other than that, mud wrestling is just hot, icky, and fun.” The $11 hot dogs and PBRs drove home the American dream-like ambiance that pervaded the roar-filled air. It felt as if it was the fourth of July, not the first weekend in June.
The concert opened with Le Bang's debut. The French, drum and bass project opened based its show on a made-up comic that goes: Lola Lancón swallowed a grenade during Godzilla's first New York attack, turning her into a superhero with the power to make catchy lyrics with bass lines reminiscent of DIIV and La Femme. Clad in a mask and hot pink, duct tape corset, she performed with her bandmates Stavros Lari and Billy Hay of Gun who wore a clown nose and eye patch.
I then saw my first fight of the night, Stav vs Billy. A full referee was there as well — whistle, striped jersey, matching Adidas flats, and all. The only rule was you had to hold the opponent down for three seconds and you had two tries. Billy won, but he kept slipping when trying to get out of the kiddie pool, splashing mud on my legs (even if you didn’t fight yourself, there was no escaping the mud).
In between sets, people continued to take of their shirts to get down and dirty while Adam Targove from Speed Angel DJ’ed. He somehow managed to pull off using a range of tracks from O.D.B to Grimes to his own club banger six times. I didn't even notice until he told me himself.
The sun began to set as Homade, the only all-girl band of the night, played. They looked like Daria characters irl and sounded as if early Cherry Glazerr amped up the 90s grunge. Before the show, singer and bassist Lola Daehler said, “The DIY scene is fucking cool. It’s mostly happening in Brooklyn, where people actually know how to have a good time. There’s nothing like being on stage when it’s you and your friends throwing the show.”
We all continued to dance or mingle on the balcony under the stars until it was time for the throwdown we were waiting for — La Loca vs Bang Girl and Triple D vs The Ho Down. The four girls on the flyer wrestled eachother. Afterwards, Sofia played a set featuring unreleased songs apart from “Boys.” It’s a favorite to see live. She gave it her all, falling to the ground while screaming, “I would do annnnnnythinggggg.” The new tracks appear darker and edgier than her usual indie pop-rock jams. She even invoked a mosh pit to break out in the middle of the backyard.
November Girl ended the night with a manifestation for two things: 1) amazing pussy 2) for all our wishes to come true. Adorned in a Spring Breakers type outfit: flag bikini, booty shorts, and hightop Nike sneakers, Willa's boy band played Smashing Pumpkins inspired riffs. Before Adam could play "808" for the seventh time of the night, the cops were already outside shutting it all down. See photos from the night below.
