There was a tornado warning in Washington, DC on Wednesday night. That didn’t stop 250 people from cramming into the second floor of DC9. They had their own personal tornado to attend. Winona Fighter was in town.
From the moment the self-described Nashville garage-punkers forced their way through the crowd and onto the stage, it was nonstop energy. This was the beginning of the final leg of their “Yes Chef” tour, in support of their debut album My Apologies to the Chef – 14 tracks of blistering guitar and pounding bass/drums concerned with the messier sides of love and fame.
The fans at DC9 got to hear the entire album, along with a few extras. Frontwoman Coco Kinnon expressed continual delight that the show was sold out. “I usually have a lot of angry s**it to say, but not tonight.” She went on to spread a message of love and support. “I don’t really trust the government. I trust the people in this room.”
Then she’d launch into another perfectly crafted power punk gem that managed to be both angry and joyous in equal measure.
Nashville punk trio Winona Fighter does not disappoint on their first headlining tour
In the middle of the set, Kinnon asked the crowd how many of them had been dragged to the show against their will. She then played the only cover of the night, because “we believe in doing a show where everyone knows at least one of the songs.” The song turned out to be a short, jarring version of the Beastie Boys' “Sabotage,” and indeed, everyone did know it.
But if that was the only reason for briefly moving away from My Apologies to the Chef, Winona Fighter needn’t have bothered. It seemed as if virtually everyone in the club knew and sang along to every original song. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a band headlining their first tour, with only one album on their resume, have an entire room know every word to every song.
Kinnon was able to rest her voice occasionally and let the fans do the singing.
But Coco Kinnon didn’t rest very much. Imagine what happens when you take a punk drummer and free her from her kit. That energy has to go somewhere, and in Kinnon’s case, it bounces all over the stage. Sometimes she had a guitar, sometimes she didn’t. Didn’t matter. She was non-stop motion through 16 songs in 65 minutes.
Kinnon, who grew up in the Boston punk scene before relocating to Nashville, plays drums on the debut album. On the road, she and the rest of the trio are joined by Nashville session drummer Steve Mascarello.
Lead guitarist Dan Fuson and bassist/producer Austin Luther power the band through every number. From the anthemic sing-along “You Look Like a Drunk Phoebe Bridgers” which opened the show through the finale “HAMMS IN A GLASS,” Fuson and Luther never let the pace lag.
The crowd never let up either. When Kinnon said she wanted to see them jump on Chef’s lead track “JUMPERCABLES,” that’s exactly what they did. When she directed one fan dressed as a chef to get the mosh pit started, that’s exactly what he did. (His name was Jake and he was rewarded by 250 strangers chanting his name both before and after “Wlbrn St Tvrn.”)
Kinnon is capable of writing sharp, insightful lyrics, as she does on earworms like “R U FAMOUS” and the slightly poppier “Swimmer’s Ear.’ But the chorus of “Wlbrn St Tvrn” summed up the night pretty cleanly.
“Im’a do it how I want it, where I want it, when I want it, and you better bet I’m gonna ‘cause I’m gonna do it now!”
DC’s Massie – very much at home on the DC9 stage – opened the show with their own 30 minutes of power pop, closing with their latest single “Lost Mary.” Vocalist Emily Yaremchuk thanked the crowd for turning up in the middle of a tornado.
It may have been pouring outside but on Wednesday at DC9, the tornado was swirling away inside.
You can catch Winona Fighter on the remainder of the Yes Chef tour heading up into the northeast before turning west for shows in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota over the next couple of weeks. And you can check out the new 32-track deluxe version of Apologies to the Chef, complete with a few new songs and equally banging acoustic versions of the album's originals, which dropped on July 10.