Pitchfork Festival’s fourth UK edition sees an eclectic range of indie artists overtaking some of London’s prime gig venues, including the Detroit-based EDM duo Snow Strippers who packed out East London’s staple nightlife venue Village Underground on 7th November 2024, supported by New-York based label and collective Surf Gang’s founding member EERA and Suzy Sheer which is the latest mysterious collaborative project from Boysinblush, featuring DJ Heroin from Germany.
Following EERA’s opening DJ set, Suzy Sheer brought an exciting, innovative synth and vocal performance with DJH playing the MS-20 synthesizer. Both EERA and Boysinblush have worked with Snow Strippers on remix tracks and their sets provided a cohesive build up for Snow Strippers’ entrance with Tatiana Schwaninger emerging in a baby pink pleated doll top, adorned with silk ribbons, frilly micro-shorts and fringed boots, embodying both soft femininity and a wild party spirit. Snow Strippers are made up of Tatiana Schwaninger and producer Graham Perez, who met in Florida. Their distinctive sound fluctuates across witch house, synth wave and electroclash, although Snow Strippers choose to define their genre more broadly as EDM. Snow Strippers alongwith their supporting acts EERA and Suzy Sheer are part of a wider resurgence of the Crystal Castles sound. Similarly their visual expression, which forms a core part of their overall identity, reappropriates 2010’s aesthetics such as an ironicised version of the ‘trash’ aesthetic you may find in ‘Spring Breakers’ and a hedonistic ‘Skins’ attitude, evoking nostalgia for the older side of Gen Z. Both visually and musically Snow Strippers combine ‘indie sleaze’ with contemporary internet culture and darker, grunge elements. Within the new ‘indie sleaze’ and alternative electropop wave of artists, rising talent Babymorocco (Clayton Pettet) was also amongst those present, dancing backstage.
Snow Strippers’ die-hard fan base were notably distinguishable through their fashion as they adapted these aesthetics, along with creative facial piercings and dyed hair, demonstrating a subculture-like unity and donning merch from the show. The sea of arms reaching forward to the stage were heavily dripping with stacked bracelets and wristbands with hand tats and bejeweled nails in full force. As Snow Strippers commenced their set, this was certainly a show which fit the narrative that younger concert-goers lack gig etiquette in post-covid times. The youthful crowd were boisterous and chaotic, in keeping with the UK Snow Strippers fan reputation, which made for an exciting energetic buzz, albeit intense as vocalist Schwaninger sprayed her water bottle across the audience and droplets caught the ethereal stage lighting which illuminated the duo within the angelic blooms of smoke. Snow Strippers truly sent the Village Underground into a frenzy of singing along when they played their viral track ‘Under Your Spell’. The sold-out show went well, resulting with an additional London date being added to the Snow Strippers tour for late November.
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Words & Photography: Katie McGoran