Hey Listen! Drug Church At Mohawk

Sofia Slack

Music Reviewer

It was 2022 when I first learned about Drug Church. I was asked by one of my friends at the time if I wanted to go to Austin for a Halloween Punk Night show, and they told me Drug Church would be performing. At the time, I had only had a few songs of theirs in my playlist, but I agreed to go because I had never been to any sort of punk show before, and I had nothing better to do.

After that Halloween Punk Night show, something in me had changed. The energy that I had felt that night would be a feeling I would continue to look for the rest of my life. I was submerged in a new community, discovered talented bands, and created memories that I will always hold dear to my heart.

I slowly learned more about Drug Church. Drug Church is a five-piece hardcore/hardcore-adjacent band from Albany, New York, formed in 2011. The band consists of vocalist Patrick Kindlon, guitarists Nick Cogan and Cory Galusha, bassist  Pat Wynne, and drummer  Chris Villeneuve.

Drug Church’s music is full of energy, their presence imbuing itself into memory. Their discography steadily leaked into my playlists every year. I was also lucky enough to catch them again in 2024 during their ‘Prude Tour’ with openers Modern Color and Soulblind, two other bands that I love so much.

On Saturday night, Drug Church finished the first half of their Spring Tour with White Reaper, Death Lens, and Drip-Fed in Austin, Texas. I had been buzzing with excitement the entire day, counting down the minutes until my partner in crime and photographer, Desarey Elizondo Lopez, would have the best night ever.

On the way to the venue, I checked Drug Church’s Instagram story to look at set times. When we got to Mohawk, Drip-Fed was in the middle of their set. The floor wasn’t overly crowded yet, so we got to watch them up close and get some good shots.

7:45 p.m. rolls around, and Death Lens takes the stage. They put on a great performance, and they were exactly the energy the crowd needed to get everyone pumped for the next sets.

During the Death Lens set, concertgoers flooded the pit at Mohawk, eager and ready to move. The stage was simple: instruments scattered across the stage, the spotlights casting a subtle glow against a black background.

By the time it was 8:30 p.m., the start of White Reaper’s set, the floor and balcony were packed. It took about 30 seconds for White Reaper to factory reset my brain. While naturally, I had been excited for White Reaper, what I had not anticipated was a stage presence so gargantuan and, for lack of a better word, professional, from frontman Tony Esposito, guitarist Hunter Thompson, and keyboardist Ryan Hater.

Drug Church opened the show with one of my favorite tracks: “The Bitters.” Their stage presence immediately garnered intrigue; the stage flashed with red lights as the crowd waited with bated breath for the fun to begin. Drug Church’s harsh vocals blasted through the air, encapsulating the aggressive guitar rock that’s a hallmark of the band’s classics. After the first verse, a full wave of movement from the crowd suddenly kicked in, loud guitars ringing our eardrums.

Drug Church easily commanded the stage, feeding off the positive energy of their audience. There was never one moment of this set where anyone had grown tired or dulled out. Throughout the whole set, the stage presence still felt lively and was captivating to watch.

“Unlicensed Guidance Counselor” was perhaps the most blatant manifestation of Drug Church’s punk roots. Heavy guitar riffs and howled defiant lyrics foregrounded brisk, unrelenting instrumentation. Continuing into the set, once I heard those first strings of “Myopic”, I do not know what had come over me in that moment, but I climbed onto that stage and just went for it.

They closed the set off with fan favorite “Weed Pin,” and I have never witnessed such a wholesome moment like I did this night. The crowd started jumping up and down. Tons of fans piled on stage one after another. Members from the other bands joined them on stage to scream and dance. It looked like a happy ending to a movie playing right before my eyes.

We exited Mohawk with the memories we had just made. The lingering contentment I could feel pulled my lips almost unconsciously into a slight smile; on my mind was the complete and total satisfaction of Drug Church, and getting to meet one of my heroes, Patrick Kindlon. The bands were perfect, the crowd was a picture of total engagement, leaving absolutely nothing to be desired. I can always identify a great show by the artist’s level of disruption into my listening habits in the subsequent days after the show; safe to say Drug Church did it once again.