#billy easter

LISTEN FREE! to I’m in the Band podcast episode 8 with UK band Shopping (Rachel Aggs, Billy Easter, Andrew Milk), up now on Tidal’s YouTube channel! (Photo: Johnny Nguyen)

Rachel Aggs, Billy Easter and Andrew Milk, of the UK post-punk band Shopping, discuss queercore, DIY spaces, and visibility of marginalized punks in episode 8 of I’m in the Band podcast for Tidal.   (Photo: Christopher Grady)

Earlier this month, I was in the back of the crowd for a show at Portland’s Star Theater. The all-ages audience was standing around a little awkwardly, tight groups of people making small talk with their arms crossed. Then the lights dimmed and UK band Shopping took the stage. Instantly, the mood was electric. As soon as guitarist Rachel Aggs, bassist Billy Easter, and drummer Andrew Milk started in on their propulsive beats, it was like the crowd had been struck by lightning. The arms came uncrossed, the chatter ceased, and the crowd became a messy, sweaty, glorious dance pile.

This loosening-up was aided greatly by the uninhibited shredding of Aggs, who hopped and wailed her way across the stage like a force of nature. To her left, Easter strummed out a disco-vibing basslines, doing her part to make it impossible not to start moving your body to the music. That’s exactly the plan, says Aggs, who took a few minutes to talk about the band’s new album, Why Choose, from the back of their tour van in the middle of Texas. “We want to get people to dance,” she says. Their favorite shows aren’t the biggest ones, but the ones where everyone in the room gets into the beat and starts moving, says Aggs.