Leche. Sucks. 08/03/18. Beerland. – Tyson P. Midkiff

Leche. Sucks.

08/03/18. Beerland.

All photos by Eli Deitz

Say you’re a late 30s or older Austinite and you’re bored on a weeknight, you’re probably not a sad-sack, but maybe you are? I don’t know you. But anyway you’re wandering up Red River in the Texas heat for whatever reason (maybe you hate yourself or perhaps you remember seeing the Pink Swords or someone like them 12 years ago) you dip into Beerland at 11:55 in the hopes some band is tearing up the stage.

That’s exactly how I saw Leche. On their site www.lechesucks.com they self identify as “cow-punk.” I don’t think that’s a thing. Or maybe cow-punk is a new sub-sub-sub genre with some kind of scene I should be mindful of. I dunno. But whatever they call themselves they definitely listen to Fear.

Leche is a four piece with a plus one, (the plus one is a mod who, as far as I could tell, just dances stage left). This was their tour kick-off and album release show for their new record “Trickle Down My Ass.”

Their set was relentless and quick, with a smattering of stage banter right out of the political-punk-rock playbook. Their sound was thrash filled with that East Coast Punk anger, and I fucking loved it. Songs were aggressive while still being playful and their rage hit the mark in a political realm where we need a little bit of punk rock rage.

After listening to a few of their songs it becomes clear what they mean by cow-punk. They’ve got a fondness for country chord progressions and a harmonica comes out here and there. But then they’ve got a song about skating and shitting on the, basically canonized in Austin, Legend Stevie Ray Vaughan.

I mentioned Fear, but they’ve also got songs that remind me groups like the Germs or even US Bombs. They’re all over the place but somehow all together, it’s like East Coast anger meets West Coast cadence meets Wrong Coast country. They don’t suck.