Midwest Metal Punks’ May Says Farewell To The Mall, Plans For Mayhem In 2025
The Mall, photo by author @sonicgallerystl
Time is a cruel mistress and waits for no one. We only learn how little of it we actually have once we’ve felt the hourglass sands slip through our hands as we fumble blindly through this life. Every beat of the living dance is a beat of the heart we’ll never get back. Time only moves forward, but to accept its limits is to understand that tomorrow is never promised and our most precious possession is the ever-present now.
Time in St Louis for synth punk experience The Mall is quickly coming to a close, at least being based from here. The brainchild of auteur Mark Plant, The Mall combines stark, cinematic synthesizer sounds with cold machine beats and impassioned vocals. On albums like Time Vehicle Earth, recently reissued on Convulse Records, the project is the soundtrack to the failed future we live in, finding beauty in the dilapidated, distorted echo from our denied dreams of a tomorrow that will never come.
As a live act, The Mall (pictured above) becomes something much larger and more visceral, a laser light and smoke filled paean to the late stage burning age, with Plant’s intense presence and vocal charisma commanding the crowd to let go with the rhythm, and if this is the end of everything, fuck it, we’re going to dance because at least this apocalypse will have a good beat. There’s no one in STL local music who has done what The Mall does better; they have traveled the world proving it, and now it’s time for them to find new mountains to climb as they relocate after one final farewell show on Jan. 16th at Off Broadway.
Time is a currency we spend. Few have spent more of it recently in the St Louis underground music world than the folks at Midwest Metal Punks, and as “the Midwest’s foremost booking + promotion agency for evil acts of all genres,” they have done a lot of good for the area. Founded by energetic mastermind Tae May, MWMP started coalescing in spirit around 2016 in May’s previous home base of Des Moines, IA, where she booked shows for friends, markets for local crafters, and the inaugural edition of the Street Heat festival. After realizing the limitations of bringing national tours to that location, May moved to St. Louis in April of 2020 just in time for the grinding halt everywhere. Many in the music business did what they had to do to make it through the disappearance of live shows, but not every business got to the other side intact. The wide open playing field left by the unfortunate closings created an opportunity for the determined May, who got her first taste of booking STL shows by throwing a party in September of 2021 at Off Broadway featuring the world’s favorite leatherbeat daddies Plack Blague (from NE) and The Mall. The event was such a hit that May knew there should be more, and Midwest Metal Punks sprung to life as a full-fledged promotion company.
“I missed live music more than anything during lockdown and I knew others did too. I wanted to bring joy back into the lives of others and build a strong, supportive community through music,” May says, and she has. For fans of genres considered extreme by the general public, Midwest Metal Punks has become the standard bearer in St. Louis by bringing in national acts like OK’s Ectospire on Feb 2nd at Platypus and OH’s NunSlaughter on Feb 9th at The Sinkhole. For the folks who want to dance the pain away to hard beats and flashing lights, MWMP regularly books industrial, darkwave, and EBM shows like the upcoming tour stop from NE’s Jeff In Leather (seen above) who brings his signature candy coated brutality to Off Broadway alongside the dark techno of NYC’s Nuxx Vomica (seen below) on Jan 16th. At every one of these shows, and countless others, May can be found encouraging, guiding, and if needs be corralling the musicians and the crowd to put on a quality show. None of this is easy and none of it would happen without a tremendous amount of passion and the sheer strength of will of May and MWMP. They won’t be here forever, so it’s time they were recognized while they are.
Time is a flat circle; the new always comes back around. It’s not often that a story starts with a person and GOD finding each other in a Target, but for the ever-evangelical Tae May and the members of St Louis’ newest darkwave/electronic band, that’s exactly what happened. “I was at Target one day and I saw someone I did not know wearing a Boy Harsher shirt. As a promoter, I am constantly approaching strangers to tell them about my events and to talk about music in general, in an attempt to get people to come to more shows. So seeing a stranger wearing a shirt of a band I love seemed like a perfect opportunity to ‘recruit’ someone new into the scene,” May recounts. “We both ended up at self checkout at the same time, so I approached to say how much I love Boy Harsher and how I book shows in that realm. That person was Travis of GOD and he shared with me that he was working on a new project within that genre. I was of course thrilled and urged him to follow me on Instagram as I am constantly looking for new local bands to play my shows. We connected and got their first show booked, thanks to the magic of Target!”
Travis, the guitarist for the two piece act, was equally pleased. “I was very familiar with MWMP, we stayed in contact and they put on our first show back on Nov. 1st and (everything) has just been great!”
Already well known for other projects, the members of GOD brought their previous experience to the new style they were pursuing. “It all sort of started with me messing around with synths and drum sampling/sequencing and using them as a minimalist songwriting tool,” says Paul, the other half of the duo who had prior been primarily a guitarist. “I have a tendency to write more melodic music, so I wanted to challenge myself to mix in more harsh textures. I also eventually took up the role of a vocalist, which is something I’ve never done in a band before.”
“There’s no prerecorded backing tracks or laptops, I sequence/play everything live on my sampler and synths,” continues Paul. “Though I felt that having a real live instrument would bring the music to life more, so I naturally enlisted my best friend Travis to play guitar in the project. We love all the same music and had the same influences in mind when we were writing these songs so it made the writing process very natural. We just want to make danceable tunes that are dark and brooding, but still have a pop sensibility. Musically, we want to use this project to push ourselves to try new things and get outside our comfort zone.”
By all accounts, GOD are succeeding at what they’re setting out to do. “I was blown away by their first live performance, as were others,” says promoter May, “and they brought quite a local fan base with them already as well, which is of course a huge bonus!” No one knows what the future holds for GOD, but it seems like their time to shine is soon as they get set to open the show on Jan 16th at Off Broadway.
Time is unknowable, but sometimes things can come together for a perfect moment, even if it’s just a chance to say goodbye. “I am really going to miss their presence here but I am very happy to see them growing,” May says of the departing Mark Plant. “It has been amazing to watch them shine as an artist and I have been one of their biggest fans along the way. The universe brought us together for a reason. I believe it was to build a strong community together.” Whether you’re part of that community, you’d like to be, or you’re just looking for one more chance to come dance, be at Off Broadway on Jan 16th. Your time is now.
