What’s the antidote to apathy culture and compassion fatigue? Let’s start with sneering glam-punk and a band that has mastered the subgenre: The Velveteers.
The Velveteers are a non-binary, queer and woman-led band. Like the punks of decades past, they know that the best way to spit in the face of the establishment is to refuse to go down without a fight.
As frontwoman Demi Demitro sings in “Take It From The Top,” “You gotta bе a player if you wanna win the game.” The Velveteers have managed to bottle the angstiest, angriest, most admirable parts of youth without the over-earnest appeals of many a pop ballad.
Demitro and drummer Baby Pottersmith initially formed the band as teenagers. Their music has matured with them (and with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Jonny Figg). Luckily, The Velveteers can still embrace the heavy turmoil of their juvenile years and tap into those raw emotions without veering into cringe-worthy territory.
The band is playing Evolution Festival in St. Louis alongside acts like the similarly gritty rockers The Kills.
“I was literally obsessed with them when I was a teenager,” Demitro says, “so it’s really cool to be on the same bill as them. 16-year-old me would be screaming!”
The Velveteers won’t be traveling too far from their native Boulder, Colo. for the festival, but they’re psyched anyway.
“I love the Midwest. For the most part, we have some of our rowdiest shows out here,” Demitro said. “Midwest folks seem to really enjoy rock n’ roll.”
Evolution Festival is a far cry from Lollapalooza, which Demitro recently attended (in part to see her friends Girl Tones), but the band’s expectations are high. The resurgence of Midwest emo and punk bodes well for The Velveteers, as does the success of their most recent album.
The dazzling A Million Knives was produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and released in February 2025. It features the single “Go Fly Away,” which is co-written and co-produced by Auerbach and Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney. The more optimistic pop song demonstrates the band’s range. “Bound in Leather” and “Fix Me” are the darker, crooning tunes that Velveteers fans love so much.
Even if you already know every track by heart, there will still be plenty of surprises to anticipate with the live performance. “Yes, I definitely feel like the songs transform into different versions when we play them live,” Demitro said. “Lots of parts get extended, and sometimes we even add in the parts that originally got cut from the record. It’s fun to constantly be transforming the songs and having them grow with us.”