Be Your Own Pet returned with vigor to the Bottleneck, support by SCUD

July 26, 2024

Nick Spacek,

Be Your Own Pet. // photo by Nick Spacek

Be Your Own Pet
with SCUD
The Bottleneck
Thursday, July 25

Something about being at the Bottleneck for two shows in one week made me feel like I was in my twenties again, and given the fact that the last time I saw Be Your Own Pet was right around the release of their second album, Get Awkward, in 2008 when I was still in that decade, it’s probably as close as I’m ever going to get to revisiting that era of my life without a blood transfusion and/or a time machine. Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet is a band whom I’ve referenced in multiple interviews over the last year or so since their long-awaited third LP, Mommy, dropped in August of 2023. Their return was something about which to be joyful, but I never expected to experience in person.

Lo and behold, they played the Bottleneck Thursday night, and I lost my mind with excitement. So much so that, in my memory, the show exists mainly as a blur of recollections: the band walking onstage to John Carpenter’s theme for Assault on Precinct 13, frontwoman Jemina Pearl thrashing about, screaming along to “The Kelly Affair,” “Becky,” and “Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle” like I had the mic myself, watching a crowd full of people sing along and dance as much as I did. The amazing, jaw-dropping speedy run-through of the Damned’s “Neat Neat Neat” closed the show.

Seeing a band come back after well over a decade away to play a set which equaled, if not rivaled, the last time I’d seen them perform is a jaw-dropping experience. The way Be Your Own Pet could joke around in between songs, felt like they were messing about in front of a group of friends and, really, that’s kind of what it was. The crowd skewed mid-30s to early 40s, with a smattering of 20-somethings mixed in, but this crowd was there for the show. Folks wanted to sing along to the old hits, hear the new stuff live, and just let loose on the floor as much as the band did on stage.

My throat still hurts, my feet are aching like I walked a dozen miles, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

SCUD. // photo by Nick Spacek

Openers SCUD hail from Lawrence and are noisy, loud, and brought their own crowd to the show. That group was swiftly joined by many new fans who watched this three-piece rock out like the place was jam-packed, much as Be Your Own Pet would do just 45 minutes later. Seeing them on a big stage with a big sound system amplifying their noisy garage jams lends an element to these guys that needs to happen more often.

All photos by Nick Spacek

Be Your Own Pet

Be Your Own Pet setlist
Worship the Whip
Heart Throb
Fuuuuuun / Food Fight!
Goodtime!
Bog
Wildcat!
Adventure
Rubberist
The Kelly Affair
Get on YR Knees
We Will Vacation, You Can Be My Parasol
Big Trouble
Girls on TV
Spill
Becky
Black Hole
Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle
Teenage Heaven
Neat Neat Neat (The Damned cover)