Laura Jane Grace Plays Sold-Out Four Seasons Total Landscaping Show
Laura Jane Grace played a sold-out show on Saturday (Aug. 21) at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, the Philadelphia-area business which famously served as the site for an incoherent press conference from former president Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, last November.
Whereas Giuliani’s press conference was a sad, unintentionally hilarious attempt to challenge the presidential election results and defend the disgraced ex-president, Grace’s performance was a joyful, triumphant return to the stage, marking her second public performance since the coronavirus pandemic halted live music last year. The punk veteran’s 16-song set mixed Against Me! classics with tracks from her latest solo album, 2020’s Stay Alive.
Grace, who teased the gig on Twitter last month as “the most insane show I will ever be a part of,” drank in the scenery as she performed, flanked by a local sex shop and crematorium. “I’ve performed at big arenas, at Wembley Stadium,” Grace told the crowd of punks, as reported by Rolling Stone. “I sang onstage with Cyndi Lauper, written songs with Weezer, been onstage with Joan Jett, none of that compares to this.”
The singer also played a new song called “All Fucked Out, which she debuted the night before in Garwood, N.J. Written just a few weeks ago, the song features the lyrics “I’m dry like bread / stale and crusty / I got just the ends left / I’m all fucked out.”
Given that they were gathered at the site where Trump and Giuliana jointly put the final nail in the coffin of Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, Grace and the audience relished the opportunity to mock the Republican also-rans. Concertgoers posed with a cardboard cutout of Giuliani, which later surfed its way across the crowd. There was also a framed, printed copy of Trump’s Four Seasons tweet, which read, “Big press conference today in Philadelphia at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — 11:30am!”
The contrast between Grace’s packed, euphoric show and last year’s head-scratching presser was not lost on the singer. “I’m 40 years old, and I can draw a bigger crowd than Rudy,” she said, “and I have more Twitter followers than Donald fucking Trump, which isn’t fucking so bad for a transgender high school dropout.”
Laura Jane Grace, Four Seasons Total Landscaping Setlist – Aug. 21, 2021
“True Trans Soul Rebel”
“The Swimming Pool Song”
“Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious…”
“Pints of Guinness Make You Strong”
“Reinventing Axl Rose”
“Hanging Tree”
“So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Fuck Off”
“All Fucked Out”
“Old Friend (Stay Alive)”
“Apocalypse Now (& Later)”
“Walking Is Still Honest”
“Baby, I’m an Anarchist!”
“Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ”
“Why Kant I Be You?”
“Sink, Florida, Sink”
“Black Me Out”