Why I Cried The First Time Listening to Meet Me @ The Altar
After a recent viral TikTok, I have been seeing several people in the punk scene scope out and discuss the Black fronted, POC & LGBTQ+ filled pop punk band called Meet Me @ The Altar. So naturally, I had to listen and watch everything that they had to get a feel for their music.
The band is incredible. With the risky and vivacious energy seen in a lot of old Paramore records, I was hooked from the second that I listened to them. The song “Tyranny” especially stood out to me. The song that the band states draws a sword at the obvious power dynamic in place in the pop punk scene. With lyrics like “There will come a day where I won’t be so small, leave you in disarray” I was automatically smiling and rocking out by the chorus.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the tears that quite literally fell from my eyes as Edith Johnson, the lead vocalist, appeared on the screen as I watched their Morris Farm Drive montage video. For years, I hadn’t let myself think too much about the scene’s lack of diversity. I think it was suppressed emotions that I held in because of the fact that I already felt “other-ed” in most areas of my life, and music was supposed to be my escape from that feeling.
Edith, and her other band members stand as something that I wished I would have had growing up in the pop punk scene. I knew the scene wasn’t that popular by any means, but it’s obvious now that POC pop punk fans never really believed we belonged there either. I’ve listened to several white pop punk boys whine about the validity of their worries at me for years (don’t worry, I still like SOME of them), what I needed was a black voice that I could look up to, to tell me and other black listeners that they deserve a chance and that they deserve to give a damn about themselves, and actually make us believe it.
I’m excited to see what this band does next, and I am definitely buying a ticket to Riot Fest 2021 now that I see them on the lineup.
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