Illinois Art-Rockers Pet Mosquito Have Boise Buzzing About Their First Gig Here Tonight
Hatched in Carbondale, Illinois, a few years back, Pet Mosquito have already outlived every single mosquito that has ever existed on the planet. (Average lifespan for a male mosquito is 10 days; for a female mosquito, it’s about 50 … a tear is shed.) But the arty garage-rockers are still getting their sea legs, so to speak, having issued just one studio record thus far (August 2023’s Head in Bag). They’re currently on the road, staying limber after the release of Live at the Lamplighter Lounge in October 2023 and their Pre Apocalypse Motorcycle Music EP 11 months later.
Tonight will be a special one for the band, and perhaps even more so Boise, as they land here for the first time to play a gig at Realms Arcade. The band consists of singer/guitarist E Gariepy, bassist Evan Hall, drummer Berget Borowitz and trombonist Jessie Groninger. Gariepy recently checked in with The Bad Penny in anticipation of the show, to discuss the young band’s impressive tour history, recall the CIA’s experiments on human beings and joke around.
Can’t find any trace of you having performed in Boise before. Will this be your virgin concert here? Based on whether you have or haven’t played in this fine city prior, what are you anticipating?
We have sadly not played in Boise yet. I put it on our list because it fit perfectly on our route, and we always want to go to places we haven’t been before. After almost giving up on trying to find a venue a fan reached out about putting a show together, and made it happen! We don’t usually go into anything with expectations, but I’m very excited to see how it goes and to meet this amazing human who went out of her way to put a show together!
Do you plan to bring THE RAWK or just the rock?
RAWK! (And possibly with a side of RAWLL.)
Despite not having played Boise before, you must have a formidable history of having toured, given that you played at the rad Gonerfest and put one of your live performances to tape and released it in 2023.
We tour a decent amount and have gotten some fun opportunities like Gonerfest, touring Mexico … and we booked this tour to go play [Total Punk Corporate Retreat III: Punk Goes Broke in Portland this weekend]. We just keep playing and going wherever people want us to go.
How has your sound and live performance matured or, er, immatured since the release of Live at the Lamplighter Lounge?
I think it’s a little of both. We have gotten better as a band (I hope) and our live show is only getting better. But one thing I really fell in love with about the Lamplighter recordings (recorded by Jesse Mansfield) was that it was all on four-track tape. So after that show, I went home and bought a four-track machine which we used for the Pre-Apocalypse Motorcycle Music EP. And we used it for our upcoming record as well.
Does the song title “Two Way Mirror in a Halfway House” imply that the mirror is limited to just a one-way mirror or that it is only half as tall or wide as it was before? Is that song autobiographical or merely a play on words with no foundation in reality or experience?
No, it implies that some mirrors are two-sided. It is a reference to the CIA experiments on sex workers during the MK-ULTRA era. [The illegal human experiments took place between 1953 and 1963. -ed] Agents would secretly dose people with huge amounts of LSD and watch them through a two-way mirror. This is a perfect example of the United States not giving a fuck about anyone but the rich and powerful. Sometimes I look in the mirror and hate what I see, but recently when I look in mirror, I see through.
Has your pet mosquito ever escaped, and if you recaptured it, how did you know it was the same one?
Yeah, he is a slippery guy, but he knows who feeds him.
Do you get offended when people refer to your pet as a “bug” or, worse yet, a “bloodsucker”?
I mean, that’s what he is, ain’t he? A bloodsucker. He also excepts “Soulsucker.”
Do you get pissed that government officials won’t allow you to designate your mosquito as a “service animal”?
Nah. He is actually already on the “no-fly list,” so it doesn’t matter too much.
What show those planning to attend your Boise gig expect? How would you sway those on the fence to go?
To anyone interested in coming to the show, expect a fun, fast, raucous good time. Also, I believe that the venue being an arcade is honestly its own reason to go. There is literally no way to not have a good time!
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Find out more about Pet Mosquito by visiting their Bandcamp page.
Pet Mosquito play at Realms Arcade tonight with Zap Pack, Dirt Russell and M-Chev. Tickets are $10 and available here. The show is all ages. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the music starts an hour later.
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