underscores brings her U-Haul DJ set to Brooklyn

After a wildly successful stint in Los Angeles, underscores brought her viral U-Haul pop-up DJ set to Brooklyn. The latest of these pop-up shows—supporting her new album U—took place on the back patio of Bushwick queer bar 3 Dollar Bill. I headed over to where the townhouses gave way to warehouses, following a pack of girls in miniskirts and big black boots. Other street style staples at the underscores show: barrel pants, pastel-hued hair, eyeliner with big sharp wings, baggy black hoodies, ripped sheer stockings, ballet flats, legwarmers, beat up white sneakers, beanies, bucket hats, baby bangs, baby hairs, door knocker earrings, adidas track jackets, denim on denim.

Two hours before showtime, the line was already around the block. I’d guess that the median age was about twenty-three—a real “exactly one year out of college” crowd. I heard one person in line look at everybody standing around in the middle of a weekday afternoon and remark, “Don’t these people have jobs?” (Don’t you?) An ice cream truck circled the block. A fan walked up and down the line asking each person their favorite underscores song (my answer: a resounding “locals (girls like us)”). 

I spoke to a few of my line neighbors about what else they were listening to and found that, unsurprisingly, the Venn Diagram of underscores fans, Ninajarachi fans, and Jane Remover fans, is a circle (Nina and Jane DJ’d alongside underscores at the L.A. U-Haul pop-up). One fan of all three of these artists described his music taste as “very Gen-Z,” before adding: “I’ve actually been listening to a lot of old LCD Soundsystem. It’s not really of this time.”

Fans also namechecked Slayyyter, Oklou, COBRAH, Charli XCX, and Frost Children. A few mentioned that they’d attended The Dare’s Freakquencies dance party at Baby’s All Right the night before, which had featured DJ sets from underscores and Hot Chip, as well as a surprise appearance from Tinashe. Palavi and Alison—a pair of fans who very generously held my spot in line while I went around the corner to get a sandwich—mentioned that they were seeing COBRAH at Brooklyn Paramount later that day. Palavi had discovered underscores during an umru DJ set last summer. “What’s happening with indie electronic music is really exciting right now,” she said. 

We all flooded into the 1,500-cap patio just after 6 p.m., where a U-Haul truck stood open with a DJ booth set up inside. A white tarp bearing underscores’ headphones logo was draped over it. Onstage behind the moving trailer was a projected slideshow of photos of underscores herself, set to a loop of Drake’s “200 kids outside” clip from his phone call to The Weeknd on Toronto radio station Flow 93.5. underscores and her guests—including Madeon and umru—arrived promptly at 6:30, clambering into the U-Haul to thunderous applause. underscores made an announcement about safety and free RedBull, and informed us of “the most important rule… have funnnnnnnn!” before kicking off her set with a remix of Cardi B’s “Up.” 

In a half-updo and a pair of thick-rimmed librarian-chic eyeglasses, underscores mixed “Ponyboy” into “Bitch Better Have My Money,” Usher’s “Yeah!” into Addison Rae’s “I got it bad,” U standout “Tell Me (U Want It)” into a remix of “Funkytown.” Despite being only a few yards from the U-Haul itself, I did feel a bit like I was watching the set through a sea of phone screens—which, what did I expect? 3 Dollar Bill’s back porch proved a pretty decent vantage point; it was from there that I watched the U-Haul shake like it was going over a block of potholes to a leroy remix of Jane Remover’s “Experimental Skin / How To Teleport” while some kid danced on a nearby roof until security busted them. A Bushwick pop-up seemed like an inevitable destination for underscores’ great moving truck tour—no doubt it brought back memories of “smoke number one.” I wonder where underscores and her U-Haul will go next.

@blushdcake @underscores at the brooklyn u-haul pop up 🎧 #underscores #uhaul #mychemicalromance #f5ve #nyc ♬ Helena – My Chemical Romance

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