Saturday marked the last show on the North American Leg of Mannequin Pussy’s I Got Heaven Tour, and it was heavenly indeed.
The Philadelphia punk quartet’s setlist spanned all four of the its albums with a focus on the latest critically acclaimed namesake for the tour.
The band was slated to play Orpheum’s indoor stage, but when ticket sales outgrew the building they sold-out the outdoor stage as well. This wasn’t the first time the sold-out tour needed venue upgrades, either.
The set started with some slower tunes but soon picked up the pace. Plenty of fans came in costume, and it’s always a treat to see a mouse two-stepping alongside the devil and a runaway bride. We’re also pleased to report just as much kissing as moshing going on in the crowd.
In between hits like “Control” and “Romantic” frontwoman Marisa “Missy” Dabice paused for a monologue about the word pussy, lamenting complaints about the vulgarity of the band’s name.
“It’s always the boys who have a problem with the word ‘pussy,’” she accentuates the ‘P’ and draws out the ‘s’ sound, her lips rendering the word more saccharine than vulgar. She commanded the crowd to scream ‘pussy’ as loud as they could, leading into the opening chords of “Loud Bark.”
Nearing the end of the show, Dabice announced that they had time for two more songs. “Are you guys going to be really mad if we don’t play “Drunk II”?” To which Tampa screamed a resounding “YES!”
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The singer admitted that, although the song was on the setlist at the beginning of the tour, her “body started rejecting this song” and they stopped playing it. But she didn’t want to disappoint on the last night of tour, so the crowd all got to scream along, “I still love you, you stupid fuck.”
“You got me crying at the Mannequin Pussy show,” she said into the mic when the song ended. We don’t blame you, Missy; this writer may or may not have shed a tear as well.
Rock fans seem to love genre politics, but there is no denying that Mannequin Pussy is punk at its core. Dabice tore into Ron DeSantis, bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford spoke about police brutality, and they helped a fan find their lost cell phone. Dabice even led another group scream later in the show.
In a sultry whisper she told the sea of rockers, “You came here seeking some sort of catharsis. Give your rage to me.”
Mannequin Pussy has paid its dues, from the band’s first show in Tampa at Mojo Records in 2016 to now, Dabice’s showmanship has come to fully embody the band’s fearlessness, message and sound.
