This Friday, April 3, the legendary band TRSH returns to Columbia for KCOU’s very own F88 concert. Formed in Springfield, Mo., the quartet has blown up in popularity over the past few years, bringing their distinctive midwest emo/punk sound to shows across the country.
Band members include Derek Berry (vocals/guitar), Keiran Andrews (bass), Bowen Pennell (drums) and Gunnar Pennell (guitar).

TRSH’s most recent album, String Theory, explores themes of identity, relationships and mistakes. Their high energy, scream-sung vocals are simultaneously both melodic and catchy, expressing the underlying angst of a generation. Masterful guitars and passionate vocals meld perfectly in this album, creating a sound that is at once an encapsulation of a genre and purely their own. One song leads smoothly into another, with slow, contemplative sections escalating into explosive screaming, the introspective melding with the irreverent.

The lyrics in this album are complex in subtle ways, with songs like “Drown Me In A Bathtub Filled With Wingstop Ranch” that are shockingly earnest about love and doubt. Derek Berry sings “You are the salt of the earth at the center/There are some days that I hardly remember/I have wasted every opportunity that has been handed right to me/You were handed right to me.”

Listening to TRSH feels like one of those sobbing, screaming cry sessions that actually feels really good and somehow makes everything feel okay again. TRSH sings what we’re all feeling. Or maybe that’s just me.

TRSH is a band that so expertly embraces the idea of being losers, that they have become infinitely cool. Their music is music for all occasions: to bedrot to, to walk around campus feeling sorry for yourself too, but most of all to experience live at the Blue Note this Friday, in the middle of a mosh pit surrounded by all of the coolest people in Columbia.