Work Stress, which plays St. Petersburg, Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg, Florida on March 28, 2025. Credit: Photo via workstress/Bandcamp

The album art for Work Stress’s 2024 album, Sever, features a broken computer screen and a dagger cutting an electrical cord. That image and the quartet’s moniker are great clues to how the collective of St. Pete DIY heroes sees quality of life issues. The record could’ve soundtracked the “Severance” finale, honestly.

The group—whose “Building Form Abject Failure” opens with the lyrics “Starving and getting sick for a purpose/A purpose for the few and they’re winning/How can we resist and destroy them?/We can build a better world based on sharing,” brings its hardcore brand of blue-collar peace-punk to this bill that includes hard-rock outfit Dagger.

Tickets to see Work Stress play The Nest at St. Petersburg Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg on Friday, March 28 are $10 at the door.

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This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2025.