Presented by WUSSY MAG, Atlanta’s fiery bastion of queer art, music, and culture, the first edition of Queercore ATL goes down tomorrow night at the EARL. Featuring five rising Atlanta acts from multiple genres, the show aims to foster conversations about queer participation within local music while providing further exposure to a group of artists who are making waves within the city’s fertile DIY scene.
Led by songwriter and Southern Fried Queer Pride co-founder TAYLOR ALXNDR, the bill features a wide-ranging mix of styles. Electronic music lovers will be able to revel in ALXNDR’s sumptuous synth-pop and the atmospheric electronica of Nick Wiggin’s Hydrakiss/No Tiger project, while fans of more avant sounds will find plenty to admire within HAINT’s aural collages and noisy, genre-rupturing experiments. As for those looking for a more aggressive punk ethos, Queercore ATL has you covered as well, with performances from post-punk rockers BLAMMO and Latinx firebrands Bitter.
The great hope here, at least from my perspective, is that events such as this one will help normalize and further integrate queer and other marginalized voices into the broader Atlanta music scene. That audiences and spaces accustomed to the norms dictated by hetero cis male artists and promoters will begin to expand their ideologies into a far more inclusive vision. Atlanta has made significant strides, especially within the last few years, but a great amount of work still needs to be done. If you’re hoping for a richer, more vibrant, more intersectional music scene, supporting events like Queercore ATL is a wonderful place to start.
For a deeper dive on the event and the artists involved, read Sunni Johnson’s excellent feature over at Project Q.
Queercore ATL goes down tomorrow night, Feb. 22, at the EARL. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. Admission is $8-10. 21+ to enter.