Kamikaze Palm Tree Docks in Brooklyn
To his right at the center of the stage is Dylan Hadley, who sings and plays drums. Tall, striking, and calm, at once incredibly presence while also radiating an aura of assuredness like she’s anticipated this meeting between band and audience forever. She’s fashioning a mullet whose bangs reach just down to her eyes which feature perfect, sharply winged black eyeliner—her lipstick a slightly darker shade of red from Cole’s eyeliner. And she’s dressed like she’s the captain of the ship Cole sailed in on.
These two are the San Francisco born, LA-based band Kamikaze Palm Tree, joined behind them by their backup band. I’ve seen them play three times since I was a teenager. The best way I can describe their music is psychedelic punk, at points reaching metal and at others reaching old-school western rock. Their shows have all been radically different in all aspects beside tone: it’s always eerie while at the same time comforting.
They are extremely serious musicians and you can tell in their music making. Their songs feature instrumental renditions that I’ve scarcely heard before, the furthest reaches imaginable with obvious influences from the shoe gaze era but much further down the rabbit holes of sonic experimentation. Their songs are almost like chants with Dylan at points repeating the same jarringly simple lyrics over and over again while Cole—who spends a lot of the show directly staring into the audience with an unblinking stare—riffs on whatever instrument he has his hands on.
And it’s music that really must be experienced live. It’s like you enter a trance that they have carefully set up for you to feel something deep inside yourself, almost a childlike sense of confusion that Dylan and Cole walk you through. To me, they feel like Hansel and Gretel of the punk world. They take your hand and lead you into a dark and scary forest—but they’ve been through it before, and somehow you feel everything will be ok because they’re better for it and they want you to have the feeling of making it through the unknown without fear.
The last song they play, off their latest LP "Good Boy," called "Run Around," features heavy, jarring guitar chords that are almost a call to action as Dylan demands that you run around high, adding that she has a snake. It feels like a threat but you're too excited to think about it too much. The song ends with an erruptive, intense, and awe-inspiring drum solo by Dylan, as if she's sending us off to war, unsure if we'll make it back alive, but at the very least we'll have answered the call with courage.
Kamikaze Palm Tree will continue to tour the country for the rest of the summer and their new album “Mint Chip” releases on August 12th, 2022.
