Live Review: The Oxys Headline An Honestly Great Show at Liar’s Club

Mar 29, 2025 admin_bitlc Features, Music News, Reviews 0

---

By Kyle Decker

The Oxys emerged amid the Pandemic in Austin, Texas in 2021. Despite the fact it is a red state (or more likely because of it), Texas has produced a lot of great punk bands. MDC, The Dicks, Skunks, DRI, The Hates, just to name a few…and that’s just the late 70s and early 80s. The Oxy themselves draw largely from even earlier days of punk.

Reviewers have mentioned them in the same breath as Dead Boys, The New York Dolls, and The Stooges. Which should come as no surprise, considering guitarist Jason “Ginchy” Kottwitz’s three-year stint in a reformed line up of the former. “Ginchy” has played alongside Cheetah Chrome and it absolutely shows. So does the influence from New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers. There are some very Thundarian proto-punk guitar flares across the board, but the riffs on “Ticking Timebomb” really sound like they’re out of 1977 in the best possible way. Much like bands of that era there’s a sleaziness and snark afoot.

There’s a sort of trashy scumbag nihilism going on lyrically that you don’t see as much these days. While they certainly draw on proto and first-gen punk bands for inspiration, the recordings I listened to in preparation for writing this article have more going on than nostalgia baiting.

Some tracks on Generation Irrelevant, especially “I Feel Nothing” and “Horseshoes and Hand Grenades” have some electric organs that really call to mind Murder City Devils. Who I realize, as I write this, formed almost three decades ago (what is time?).

The point I am trying to make is that The Oxys aren’t simply drawing on one era. Not everything sounds like it’s from 1977. Even if that sound is at the forefront. Phil D’s voice hints at a vulnerability beneath the “trash punk” vibes.  As Bukowski taught us, even scumbags have a soul. While that snark is still there, the vulnerability does have a sensibility that wouldn’t become as common until the 90s.

Apparently, the band is quite prolific as well. Ginchy and singer Phil D apparently churned out a solid 50 demos while working through pandemic ennui and it’s been a matter of compiling the songs thematically into albums. Ginchy has mentioned in interviews that they’ve got a solid four-albums worth of material already. So far they’ve managed to crank out two full-length albums, 2022s A Date with the Oxys and Generation Irrelevant in 2023. Ginchy even mixed the latter himself. With audio as his day-job it gives them the ability to take a truly DIY approach. On Friday March 28th, their midwest tour brought them to Chicagos (in)famous Liar’s Club.

Liar’s Club is absolutely the perfect venue for a band that draws so heavily on punk’s long history. The historic punk venue and haunted bar is a favorite hang for old punks and new (well, the ones who are 21+ at any rate). You may even spot members of bigger name Chicago punks bands who’ve come out just to see a show or grab a drink. It’s the kind of small venue that truly separates the line between artist and audience. Sure, there’s some space downstairs where the larger named bands can hide away if they need to. But, really seeing a show at Liars gives you the feeling of just hanging out with your friends. Y’know, the original appeal of the genre in the first place? I don’t get down there often enough, but every time I’m in there I get a sense that these are my people. The type of people who appreciated my bootleg band shirt that mixes the Nirvana smiley face with the Misfits text logo.

I showed up pretty early. As in, one of the first people there who wasn’t loading in or working there. Hey, what do you want from me? The event page said 7pm and I was raised to believe punctuality was a virtue. Either way, I was received warmly by the bartender and the two members of The Oxys who were loading in merch, vocalist Phil Davis and current bassists Michael Harpel. I don’t like to drink when on assignment (or when I drive) and was happy to discover that Liar’s Club does offer a decent selection of non-alcoholic beers.

I got a chance to chat with Michael and Phil before the show. Not really in an interview context, but just as people at a bar, about topics such as the effects of the pandemic on students and small businesses (Michael and his wife own a salon/recordshop/venue in Austin call the Vinyl Beauty Bar) and the increasing quality of non-alcoholic beers (Phil is sober).

The show finally got started around 9:30 and the first band up was Anger. They were the opening “local draw” act. As someone who has set up shows before, you always gotta have that local act to bring in folks from the scene to help support the touring bands. Anger is a hard and intense punk band and the current project of Chicago punk mainstay Dave Simon (Deal’s Gone Band, The Crombies.) They lived up to their name with their aggressive energy and old school audience baiting and teasing the sound guy. Next up was Cheap Suitors, from Indianapolis. Their mix of garage punk and use of an organ might recall Murder City Devils, but the energy is different. MCD has a darker edge to them, whereas Cheap Suitors music is more light and fun rock and roll. For example, their singer slyly introduced a song by saying, “This is a song about how pretty I am,” through a gap tooth grin. They’ve got a good energy about them. There’s only one EP that I can find, and not much press yet. But I would keep an eye on them.

The Oxys took the stage around 11 (the one caveat of Liars Club for me is I’m much less of a night owl than I used to be and shows can go as late as 1 am). Michael had mentioned to me that they tend to “move around a lot” when playing, and hot damn he wasn’t lying. It probably helped that they were filming a video that night, so they were extra animated. But the whole band had energy to spare. There was a lot of standing on the edge of the stage. Guitarist “Genocide” writhed on the floor provocatively. The woman who’d been DJing between sets jumped on stage and provided backing “Whoa-oh” vocals before kissing Genocide and jumping off. Singer Phil D moved about like a man possessed and joked that his pay was gonna get docked when his earpiece monitor went out for a song. It was all good rowdy fun. While the crowd didn’t mosh too much (again, older crowd, and most were holding drinks), they bobbed and danced plenty. Also, there’s so much going on on stage, you wouldn’t have wanted to miss anything. The band’s 12 song set was an even 4-4-4 mix of songs from each album and songs that, presumably, are on the upcoming one. Naturally, they dedicated “Liars, Betrayers, and Spies” to the good people of Liar’s Club. Because, how could you not make that connection? Killer set. A real masters class in stage energy.

The show did not end with the Oxys, though. Despite them being the top-billed band there was one more act. Vang! Another local punk band that had started out as a Lunachicks cover band before developing their own material. This was another thing I used to do when I organized shows. Especially ones that would go late. You don’t always want to put your “headliner” on last. You want them on during the peak hour, when there will be more people. Vang! thanked everyone for sticking around and proceeded to play a helluva set in their own right. The crowd may have thinned a bit after the Oxys, but Vang! was playing for the people who stayed, the people who were there for them. And it showed.

And I loved that all the bands hung out after as well. I got a chance to chat a bit with The Oxys’ guitarist/songwriter Jason “Ginchy” Kottwitz afterwards as well, who had nothing but love for the venue. We talked a bit about how our current projects came to be. Some Oxys material had been written during his time with Dead Boys at Cheetah Chrome’s encouragement, then he got more prolific during the pandemic. I shared the backstory of my current project The Head Caution as well. Again, being able to hang and chat with bands before and after shows is part of what makes punk rock punk rock to me. That feeling of a bunch of fellow artists hanging out, having a drink, talking about our various crafts, putting on a helluva show, and showing support.

It was more than a good show. It was the kind of night that made me remember why I fell in love with this genre in the first place.

For more on The Oxys, click here

===========================================================

Oxys Setlist:

1. “Ticking Timebomb” (Generation Irrelevant, 2023)
2. “Mr. Horrible” (Generation Irrelevant, 2023)
3. “Generation Irrelevant” (Generation Irrelevant, 2023) (obviously)
4. “Voodoo Queen” (A Date with the Oxys, 2022)
5. “Isolation” (Generation Irrelevant, 2023)
6. “Rock and Roll Eyes”  (A Date with the Oxys, 2022)
7. “Liars, Betrayers, and Spies”  (A Date with the Oxys, 2022)
8. “Poison in the Heart”
9. “Long Shadows”
10. “Motel Hell”  (A Date with the Oxys, 2022)
11. “Melody Lee”
12. “Idiot Box”

---

• Chicago, concert review, Punk Rock, SXSW, Texas, The Oxys, Tour 2025

---

---