April Showers: 4/5/25. Drunk Uncle, Upsetting and Pinkish at Superfly.

It’s like Old Hank’s Uber was actually a time machine that picked him up in Charlottesville in 2025 and dropped him off at Brownies or Arlene’s Grocery on the Lower East Side in NYC in 1996 during the height of the post punk, epic Garage Band Era.

It was Night 2 of an amazing April of Live Music in Charlottesville. And Superfly had put together a night of punchy, raw, distortion spitting Punk/Emo bands.

Superfly worked with Austin based 3-piece Drunk Uncle to lasso in Denton Texas’ Upsetting and Charlottesville’s own Pinkish to rip the cover off our little Americana singer songwriter softballs.

Drunk Uncle led off, and immediately blew an amp which was replaced quickly by their buds in Unsettled–handled like pros. Problem solved, they ripped a tight set of songs that included “Dear Sergio” off their new record Fiction Years. The band describes themselves as whiny emo punks from Austin but what I heard was pure garage bliss. Tight and searing but with some sneaky pop sensibilities in the vocals/melodies.

Next up came Upsetting who somehow were without their lead guitar player. No worries. Apparently the drummer from Drunk Uncle was able to learn their songs in a couple of days and saved the gig. On top of that, 3 different band members took turns leading the vocals. They call themselves “emotional dad rock” but again I heard tight, piercing punk, with some pop savvy and even a bit of Sublime party swagger at times.

Hitting cleanup was Charlottesville’s own Pinkish. The 3 piece power punk/pop outfit has a new EP out called “Half Sweet” which they dipped into liberally last night. The band has a nice following and stand as proof that punk is alive and well in the shadow of the Blue Ridge. Fronted by Nina Chaplin, the band can remind you of Green Day, at times Rancid, sometimes even Hole. Their song “Hearts of Palms” probably best exhibited Chaplin’s melodic and pop sensibilities and damn good guitar chops. 

Thanks to Superfly for a fun evening and that delicious Irish Stout. Thanks to Drunk Uncle for driving an Old Honda with 200,000 miles from Texas. Thanks to Upsetting for lending an amp and borrowing a guitarist to keep the show rolling. And Thanks to our own Pinkish for doing your part to keep our music scene in Charlottesville diverse, raw and loud.

Pace yourself, this is gonna be some month. On deck is Buckbilly Deluxe and Ramona and the Holy Smokes on Friday night at Durty Nellies, St Vincent at Ting on Saturday night and then Tyler Childers at JPJ on Sunday night!

See you there!!!

Old Hank