Saturday night at Liar's Club, I finally photographed a band that's been on my mind for so long: Mystery Actions. They embody everything I've ever wanted in a live act. Their sound channels punk from the late '70s and early '80s, invoking the Avengers, Kleenex, and Chin-Chin.
Obscure punk bands I wish I could've shot in their heyday.
Mystery Actions really were a mystery to me. I swore they were from the UK (still may be?), LA or NYC. Everything about them seemed to come from a different, expired time. Their current state and whereabouts were a TBD for so long. Who were they? So seeing news of their time-traveling gigs with just a few dates and a Chicago homecoming?
The anticipation to capture them was immeasurable.
Fronted by Nikki Beller, the band delivers exactly what I crave: snarling punk vocals, basslines and riffs that'd make Motörhead retroactively take notice and an aesthetic that's authentically 80s. Their monster-tinged look nods to the Misfits, and Nikki plays it up explicitly, part specter, part powerhouse, and all charisma. The most undead presence you'll ever see, commanding the stage like she's risen from a grave lined in mud covered vinyl and with something to prove in our timeline. Return of the living dead, indeed.
This was more than a show for me, and Nikki said it best in a text afterward: "It's the moment!" A tremendous series of moments, a resurrection, a band too good to be real, caught in the frame before vanishing once again.
Punk truly is Undead🧟♀️
*I'm rarely drawn to shoot color at shows, and yeah, that risks reading as B&W pretension. Really, it just hits deeper for me. It strips everything down to shapes, emotion and intensity, the same qualities I chase in the bands I follow: raw, otherworldly, and definitely not distant. (So much for avoiding pretension) Just artists making unreal music, and color…color just kicks undead butt-ery.