PLAYING COLUMBUS: The Sidekicks Tease New LP With “Twin’s Twist”

Weeks ago, I teared up while hearing Columbus poet Hanif Abdurraqib read an essay about a Columbus pop-punk band. That band was not The Sidekicks, but as I listen to The Sidekicks’ latest single, “Twin’s Twist,” I can’t help but recall the essay. I am stirred, settled memories of trauma, pain, joy, ecstaticism (the whole of life) lifting like silt in water. This is just to say that engaging with art – like engaging with life! – is messy and difficult. Despite pop punk’s genre-wide problems and violence, I am drawn to it; nothing unravels me quite like pop punk does, nothing forces me into emotion quite like pop punk does, and nothing, truly, makes me want to punch my fist in the air like pop punk does.

Columbus’ music scene is rich with this music and legacy, and The Sidekicks have the unusual position of being both tied to the building of that legacy, and continuing to benefit from and challenge it with contemporary releases. They’re a prolific band: initiated in 2005, the band relocated from Cleveland to Columbus in 2012, creating and sharing three full-length albums in the meantime. Now they’ve announced the release of Happiness Hours, and if their first single is any indication, the rest of the album will hold both the sour and the sweet – both the pull towards joy, and the frustration that comes after it. “The lemon rind can reek in the summer heat / but then seem so sweet later on,” sings Steve Ciolek, halfway through “Twin’s Twist.” At the end of the song, that image of a sweet and rotten rind is further complicated: “Good morning boring town,” Ciolek sings, “we’re putting on your crown / and singing you Happy Birthday / and force feeding you meringue.”

One lyric points towards the possibility of extricating sweetness from decay; the other implies violence inflicted by sugar, by happiness, by the possibilities of “crowns.” The sound, though it sticks to bouncy guitar riffs, seems to facilitate the challenges and emotionality in the lyrics. Before their third release, much was made of The Sidekicks’ drift towards pop, rather than punk. But why shy away from pop? The music’s buoyancy, its suggestion of dancing and movement, carves out a relationship with the listener one couldn’t get with punk’s abrasion.

Happiness Hours, produced by John Agnello, will be released on Epitaph records on May 18th. One day later, on May 19th, The Sidekicks will play a release show at Ace of Cups, supported by fellow locals Kizzy Hall. That night, I hope to open myself up to both bands, lifted by the growth in their music, as well as whatever it stirs within me. I’m looking forward to the rest of Happiness Hours; to continued engagement with music; and to the possibilities of pop punk in Columbus.

PLAYING COLUMBUS: Kizzy Hall & Diet Cig @ Ace of Cups

All photos by Kaiya Gordon

“Y’all Ohioans know how to do rock bands in a way the rest of the country is trying to catch up to,” said Caleb Cordes of Sinai Vessel on Sunday night at the Ace of Cups. The band was following Columbus’ own Kizzy Hall, who opened the show with a fast-paced set that, yes, did reek of rock-and-roll.

It was clear that the crowd took pride in their Ohioan roots, cheering as Cordes gave his shout-out, and dancing with vigor throughout the night. As the night opened, hometown fans crowded the stage to sing Kizzy Hall’s lyrics back to the band, taking selfies and, later, collecting set-lists.

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Kizzy Hall

When headliners Diet Cig finally took the stage, Ace of Cups was vibrating with enthusiasm.

“I feel like Ohio gets a bad rap,” said singer Alex Luciano, as she opened the set. “But every time we’re out here, I [/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][think] this is the best place in the world.” She continued: “We’ve played at the Ace of Cups a few times and each time has been dreamy…y’all are so nice and cool here, and good looking, and punk!”

Diet Cig is notorious for their high-powered live performances, and though Luciano was hindered by a torn ACL, the duo still played with force. On drums, Noah Bowman is unassuming but relentless, driving Luciano’s guitar riffs to their peaks. And Luciano, regardless of dancing ability, is magnetic onstage. As she sways, twists, winks, dips, and–of course–makes her signature high-kick, it’s hard not to look on with glee.

“Raise your hand if your crush is here,” said Alex, at the beginning of  “Maid of the Mist.” “During this quiet song you can look at them and wink. Or, if you can’t wink…blink twice.” Later in the set, during what Luciano called the “makeout interlude,” she said: “if you blinked at someone earlier, now is the time to kiss them.”

Though critics of Diet Cig find fault in the band’s saccharine qualities, I found it moving to be in a space where I could trust the musicians onstage to go to bat for each other, and for the crowd.

“A lot of times women, and queer folks, and trans folks, and non-binary folks get told that their voice doesn’t matter,” said Luciano at the end of their performance. “But it does matter. Thank you for coming and for taking up space here.”

Luciano also thanked survivors of sexual assault, saying, “It’s a radical act to be out at a show right now.”

Space, or lack of it, is a constant theme in Diet Cig’s work, and while I think it is all too easy to step on somebody else’s toes in the name of taking space, without considering the ways that one is structurally set-up to inhabit that space already, watching Luciano move freely around the stage is joyful. And I am grateful for the attention that the duo pays to creating a “safer space” at their shows.

Standing in the crowd, relieved to be done with the pressured social niceties that come with Thanksgiving, and thankful to be watching a band that is always so entirely themselves, I felt prepared to take on the world for the first time in a week.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]