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<-- Book Launch March 20, 2025: Jes McCutchen & Sam Ryan
Plasma Canvas with LJG April 4, 2025
Make sure to tell Plasma Canvas to come play in Tulsa, OK.
I first saw Plasma Canvas on July 4, 2018 during a trip to visit Fort Collins and see if I wanted to move there. The kids showing me around were walking back to crash out and we passed a house show across from a liquor store. They headed home to bed, I grabbed a 12-pack of Pabst and moshed to Plasma Canvas with a bunch of strangers in an empty living room. I was sold.
Over the next year, I saw Plasma Canvas every chance I got and they never disappointed. They were everything a punk band should be--raw; angry; heartbroken at the beautiful world we could have if there weren’t so many assholes fucking it up. Their shows were catharsis and anthems incarnate for me, a cis-het white boy, and they were an unapologetic community for the queer and trans kids that showed up to the garages and bars and downtown streets for festivals where they weren’t supposed to curse. In the audience of Plasma Canvas was the only place I called home in Fort Collins.
When I left Fort Collins, I kept Plasma Canvas close at hand to stream.
"Dear best friend,
Welcome back."
I cried when I read those words on July 30, 2024, and knew I'd be making plans to see them as soon as I could. I missed a few shows in early July 2025 in Denver, but when Plasma Canvas started selling tickets to open for LJG at the Aggie, I knew I had to rally my people from Tulsa to come see the show.
We left on Thursday night after work, slept in Kansas and got into Fort Collins Friday evening for the show. To get back to a show Saturday night in Tulsa, I drove us back down East of Denver in a light snow storm after the show that night. Twenty two hours of driving for the opener? If it's Plasma Canvas, fuck yeah.
In all my excitement for Plasma Canvas, I forgot what a phenomenal performance Laura Jane Grace puts on. She came out swinging and screaming with all the rage, joy and heart she put into her discography when she wrote those songs decades ago. Twenty minutes in and I realized she hadn't paused for breath with banter--her final notes rang out as the drums started up for the next song. If you want to know what a performance looks like that's twenty years old and is still art, look at Laura belting out "Pints of Guinness Make You Strong" in 2025.
Like the songs she writes over the decades, the band she tours with is a snapshot of her life--it's been a new one every time I've seen her. The world's a malevolent shit show today attacking trans people and inspiring “Your God (God's Dick)” to be screamed right back, and in the next moment Laura is grinning forehead to forehead with her wife, screaming into the microphone together. If that's not what punk is, if that's not what Laura's entire artist tenure has been--rage and joy and unapologetic existence in front of anyone who dares to look, who is lucky enough to look--I don't know what is.
Fucking phenomenal.
Plasma Canvas, Laura Jane Grace,
Thank you for every moment you've given me these years. Thank you for making a 22-hour drive absolutely worth it.
--Sir Princess Brutus SIAMB!
Context
live by Plasma Canvas
The Aggie Theatre April 4, 2025
recorded by Violet Vivienne Corbell Record
Note: This is an example of some writing SIAMB! is considering putting out in Tulsa, OK. Show/release reviews, reflections, inspirations, histories, stories and probably whatever idea you have that didn't make its way into that list. Send us a dm or an email if you're interested and want to pitch something or just get involved.
All Blogs
Plasma Canvas with LJG April 4, 2025 (April 9, 2025)
Book Launch March 20, 2025: Jes McCutchen & Sam Ryan (March 3, 2025)
SIAMB! Heads to France (February 25, 2025)
Chapbook Call for Submissions (May 15, 2024)
Trans Rights are Human Rights (March 22, 2023)