10 Years of Gawk

10 Years of Gawk

The Album

2025 saw big milestones for the Vundaboys; not only did they drop arguably their best record to date, Surgery and Pleasure, but it saw the ten year anniversary of the album that’s home to some of the most infectious music on Earth: Gawk.

The mid-2010s was a beautiful time for alt indie rock: The Growlers, The Frights, Together PANGEA, Surf Curse, The Garden, Remo Drive, The Buttertones, Boyscott, Beach Fossils, the list goes on forever…and in that melodic deluge sailed a soft white album with a colorful weirdo on the front. It came to us disarming, and once we let it through our speakers, the claws came out and the songs never let go.

It has some of their most popular tunes, like Chop, an oft-requested cult classic, and Alien Blues, a viral TikTok sensation that brings a younger, swarming crowd out for every show. Oulala and Darla are sleeper favorites among the old-guard.

Beyond the notoriety of the music, Gawk contains some of their most explosive live performances; songs like Bust, Worn/Wander, and Ash in the Sun are staples of their tours and often turn into their most energetic moments. I remember the first time I heard Ash live…there had been a moment of silence before they hit the opening chords, the lights went out, and the entire venue erupted.

But there are lots of shows like this…so what makes Gawk so special? Why do we keep returning to the same ten songs in droves a decade later?

I think part of it is personal. I know when I found Gawk and Antics, I was in a strange part of life that I perceived as woefully difficult. Nothing was stable, I couldn’t sleep, and my anxieties for life were killing me. What with the endless well that was the alt indie music scene in 2015, many people were trying to figure out who they were. Whenever I caught my reflection in a song, I added it to a playlist.

The other part is just who Vundabar are; a truly electric trio of musicians that make a sound no one else does. They can shred with the best of them, but when the boys are playing around and having fun, they hit a stride and reach an energy that is hard to describe and impossible to replicate.

Two things drew me to their essence: Brandon’s voice and Drew’s drumming. I love rhythm, I love strange, haunting voices…The Smashing Pumpkins are one of my OG favorite groups. Vundabar has always reminded me of the Pumpkins, with the power percussion and the strange, bizarro vocalizations.

But it isn’t just power with Drew McDonald; Vundabar was a ska band in the beginning, so Drew brings a wildly fast, yet technically controlled style to the kit; it’s a dream to listen to and such a pleasure to watch. He makes it funky in tracks like Oulala, Cotton Kid, and Desert Diddy; constant cymbal chatter gives every rhythm unending decoration.

It isn’t all speed with McDonald: songs like Smile Boyo see him standing on the kit, blasting every beat to the moon.

For all the commotion generated by the drum kit, it’s Zack and his clever bass lines that keep the gravity. A musician through-and-through, Zack holds his bass in constant conversation with the band. His snap decisions on which member to support and where to let a chord hang help keep the performance unpredictable. He carries a painfully cool energy both on and off the stage.

Brandon’s vocals are harder to capture. His voice and guitar work chase each other, much like an ouroboros; sometimes I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. His range is incredible, yet playful, and he isn’t afraid to sound unattractive; that’s where he gets his strength, turning personal, powerful, strange lyrics into a haunting lullaby.

The number of words he can cram into a single line is mind-melting. As a writer, I struggle to comprehend Hagen’s process.

Ash in the Sun is a perfect example; the verses are minimalist yet hypnotic. The entire first verse is composed of two or three word lines, rattled off monotonously. The music is punchy and impish; Drew kicks out a dirty tempo which is followed by an alarm-clock-melody on the strings.

When we hit the chorus, though, the entire song changes: the alarm clock changes to a wind chime and Brandon’s voice soars…and it has to, because the two chorus lines have nearly 30 syllables between them, twenty words, twenty two if you count contractions…and he sings it in under five seconds.

It may not sound like much, but when I see it performed live, it’s obvious how much it takes to make it work. The first verse is the same amount of words, but Brandon has twenty seconds to get through them…cramming the same amount of vocalization into a quarter of the time is risky, but Brandon’s style demands it. The oscillation between scrappy riffs and sparkling melodies is alchemical.

For all the highlights of this musical milestone, there is one I’ve mentioned that requires further study, and that is Chop. Vundabar makes wonderfully unique music, but there is something about this album intro that catches everyone’s attention; it takes you by the hand and shows you exactly what everyone in the band is about. It’s heavy, it’s whimsical, it’s weird, and I think the melody catches many first time listeners off-guard; what the hell am I listening to? I’ve listened to Chop a thousand times and I still don’t know what to call it; this is where cool genres like sludge pop and jangle rock manifest.

Conceptually, Gawk was new to all of us; despite the overwhelming talent that the mid-2010s harbored, no one else made a sound like this. Vundabar was the first hit of a high I’d never experienced; I’m still digging the claws out a decade later.

The Anniversary Show

The sophomore album having its tenth birthday didn’t start with a tour; it was originally a pair of shows in November 2025 on each coast: the Scribble in LA and the Lilypad in Boston.

I live in rural Arizona, so I catch Vundabar shows exclusively in Phoenix. My first three shows were at The Rebel Lounge in the years leading up to COVID; this is a small downtown venue that’s been active in the Phoenix alt scene for decades. Some of you may know it formerly as the Mason Jar from the 90s.

We’ve all been to a venue like The Rebel, and many of those early Vundabar tours took them to such places.

But after COVID…and going viral on TikTok, appearing on The Late Show with Seth Meyers, and touring in support of Mother Mother (where they played The Financial Theatre, one of the biggest show venues in downtown PHX), they upgraded to the Crescent Ballroom.

The Crescent is a local favorite; central to the downtown PHX scene, the venue itself has only been around for 15 years…so it doesn’t have the layers of grime like The Rebel. It’s clean, organized, and intimate, capping at roughly 500 people. Many of my favorite bands have played under that roof.

I purchased VIP tickets for my wife and I: being a larger venue than past shows, I wanted ample time to get into the building, buy any merch I wanted, and possibly get some autographs. The VIP package came with early access, plus a free tote bag, keychain, and 10 Year laminate.

The show opened with Goon, an LA-based indie rock band that I’d never listened to. They brought a loud show with them, wonderful percussion and bass work, but Kenny Becker’s vocals took me by surprise. Overall, it was a great warm-up, the audience was very receptive, and I got to experience a band cold-turkey, which is one of my favorite methods of exposure. Some of my most cherished groups have been delivered to me purely by watching them open for someone else.

Vundabar took the stage by 8PM and everyone went bonkers. At this point, I’d handed out most of my Vundabucks; this was a random show prop I whipped up and printed out. It was an idea I’d had for a long time: Vundabar play $$$ at almost every show, and I thought it’d be cool to bring a pocket full of prop money sometime and throw it in the air during the song.

Instead, I created my own currency for the show, themed entirely after the album and band, and passed it out to everyone. I wasn’t sure what the reaction would be, but as more people saw them, more people asked if they could have one. I remembered at that moment that these weren’t just fans, but an entire community based around the bones of an album; everyone was here to celebrate the same ten songs.

Something happened during the opening I’d never seen before: Brandon forgot to put the foam cover on the microphone, so on the approach, he smashed his teeth into it! It was fucking brutal to watch, having my own history of dental accidents…but I kept an eye on Drew and Zack, who were both laughing, so I took that as confirmation it wasn’t any big deal.

They opened with Ash in the Sun, which blew my fucking MIND. As explained above, this is a very technical track, extremely high energy, so to open with it is akin to madness. It’s like warming up for a workout by cutting down an oak tree. From the outside, it’s impossible, the energy exchange defies all logic…but it’s Vundabar, nothing they do is easy.

The backbone of the setlist was Gawk, some of the songs played in ways I’d never heard before, breathing new life into decade-old performances. The set was further propped up with brand new material like I Got Cracked, Spades, Stallion Running, and Beta Fish; all of which were pure fire. Cracked, Stallion, and Spades are particularly aggressive, frantic songs, written after Brandon broke his arm in France and was sidelined in Utica, NY.

Being broken and benched during the songwriting process I believe is what made Surgery and Pleasure so unhinged. The guitar is all over the place in these songs, comparable to a nervous breakdown. They were wonderful, energetic additions to the Gawk tour.

Other extras included Acetone, $$$, and I Need U.

Despite the relentless calls for them, they didn’t play Greenland or Holy Toledo. For an old timer like me, it was refreshing to hear new material over the old. If I could have picked anything to add to the PHX setlist, it would have been a toss up between Let Me Bleed and Digital Forest.

It was a tremendous show overall; I could tell the band was tired, having been on the road for a few weeks by the time they hit PHX. Kenny and Malik from Goon came out during the closing performance to help end the show.

It was a magical night of music, memories, dancing, and pleasure. Seeing the kids line up at the merch table for a quick autograph was nostalgic; it reminded me of buying Drew a beer at The Rebel all those years ago, or complimenting Brandon and Zack while they broke down their amps in the dark.

If you’re a fan of Vundabar, I’d love to hear a memory you have. If you’re new to their music, well…what a treat you have in store.