Off a dimly lit street in Como, you would not be able to tell the difference between one house and the next on a Saturday night. Except for one house with a sign on the front door that says, “It’s the backdoor, duh” and a backyard light outlining a crowd waiting outside. 

Iris Bolton, the new owner of Como Backdoor, is running doors herself. She draws a blue heart on your hand, you walk down a normal-looking staircase and you are greeted at the bottom with “Let’s go lesbians!!” written in marker on the concrete wall. 

After Bolton’s first show, she said she feels great and has decided to host more often. 

“I was not expecting to get so many people that I’d have to start turning people away,” Bolton said. “The crowd was pretty diverse, and I heard a lot of people say it was the best house show they’ve been to, which made me very happy.” 

The basement is flanked with purple string, black lights and flower garlands. One half of the basement has a small stage and a couch in the back. The other half is set up with merch tables, a fan combating the humidity and free earplugs. 

Artists RiGBY, Slut Intent, Anita Velveeta and Gramma each performed sets of around 25 minutes. 

RiGBY opened the show, the lead singer in a homemade tinfoil top, with the spoken-word punk song “Shoulders are sexy,” a song about how young girls are taught to cover their shoulders in school. 

It did not take the crowd long to embrace the music. The crowd, full of energy, was immersed in the music and dancing. 

Maude Lorr, on vocals, consistently reminded everyone to drink water and stay safe. They also gave a speech about their support for Palestine. Lorr told the Daily inclusion of diverse voices is very important to the band and Como Backdoor. 

Lorr introduced another new satirical song, which ended with their classic riot-girl screams.

“This song is about our friend Elon Musk,” Lorr said.

The crowd cheered. 

Slut Intent was the second set and commanded the room with a strong metal sound. Despite their hardcore performance, Katy Kelly, the lead vocalist, expressed gratitude to the crowd for coming.

“I want to see you mosh,” Kelly yelled. 

And just like that, the crowd went crazy. 

The moshing was vigorous and borderline violent. Regardless, there were many moments where the crowd took care of each other.

They helped people out of the crowd when they got too hot or faint. A man picked up a lost phone, threw up his hand and yelled, “Someone lost their phone!” It was returned to its owner quickly. 

By the end of Slut Intent’s set, everyone had their hands up. 

Maritzia Sanchez, a punk show frequenter, said she was particularly excited about the new management.

“It’s more queer-focused now,” Sanchez said.  

Anita Velveeta played the third set, and the crowd got even rowdier. 

Velveeta played a variety of complex and unfiltered titled songs, such as “Stealing from Wawa as a Philadelphia pastime,” “Bored of Tinder, scared of Grindr,” “Affluent Gays” and “Regicide Renaissance.” 

“If you don’t know what regicide is, it is the killing of kings,” Velveeta said, introducing the song. “This song is about how we should bring that back.” 

Zoe Pinto has been attending Como Backdoor for years and brought their friend, Tea Taylor, to experience it for the first time. 

“It’s just such a great place to be around a lot of trans and queer people,” Pinto said. 

Taylor said they do not usually mosh but did at this show. 

“It’s just really fun, and I really like Anita Velveeta,” Taylor said. 

Velveeta’s sound is scraping with the strained vocals of Kurt Cobain. Velveeta also knows how to work a crowd, saying to open up the room and have everyone mosh from one side of the wall to the other. At one point, Velveeta pointed to a man in the front row and told people to lift him up. 

Everyone then lifted up a man and he crowd-surfed. He was cheering, fist-bumping the air and grabbing the ceiling.

Gramma went on last with a shortened set because of power issues and the heat in the basement. The power had gone out twice during their performance and the humidity skyrocketed. 

Gramma played their set wordlessly, but the crowd stayed hyped. People cheered louder whenever the power went out. The band’s low, droning metal sound added a heavier sound to the show. 

Chloe Chileen, a punk show regular, never attended Como Backdoor before. Chileen loves punk music culture because it brings out a crowd that is open, accepting and queer

The two-and-a-half-hour show consisted of sweat, moshing that left people unbothered, loud music and even louder cheering. Even the power outages could not deter the crowd’s enjoyment of the show. 

“I honestly don’t think it could have gone much better,” Bolton said.

Correction: A previous version used incorrect pronouns for Zoe Pinto and Tea Taylor. They use they/he pronouns.