Punk Revivalists Pinkshift Perform at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, NY

On November 17th, I embarked on a day trip to New York City to cover one of my new favorite artists, Pinkshift. Pinkshift is an exciting band hailing from Baltimore, who has been making many waves this year with their innovative sound and electrifying lyrics. The band released an album not too many months ago titled Love Me Forever and it was really cool to hear live, especially with the type of fun loving, mosh pit ready crowd that had gathered for the night’s festivities.

From start to finish, the band's set was truly a fun experience. Playing tracks such as “Trust Fall”, “Cinderella”, “Love Me More” and many others, it was exciting hearing these songs live outside of my everyday Spotify soundtrack. One moment of the show that truly broke me was when their lead singer, Ashrita Kumar performed “In a Breath”. The powerful piano ballad deals with topics of trauma and pain. The track was actually written in 2018 and in her own words, “It’s a song about feeling dissociated from my body and fighting to stay alive despite it. It explores the existence of an impossible reality, contemplates the existence of a God and contemplates our capacity to love and be loved. It’s about guilt, shame, redemption and acceptance.” Knowing that and hearing the pain and rawness in her voice gave me goosebumps and I applaud her bravery to share that to the world. Another moment from the sold out concert that spiked my attention was when the band played their fan favorite track, “Burn the Witch”. The drum heavy song was everything that had the whole crowd in a frenzy with at least two mosh pits inside the very intimate venue. I was so excited to hear the performance and be in such a fun and entertaining environment, I actually put my camera down for a second and joined in the fun.

Pinkshift is here to stay and I can't wait to see how 2023 goes for them. With a spot performing at next years Adjacent Festival, their future is looking bright and you should definitely tune in.