From 2005’s Damn Damn Leash EP forward, I couldn’t stomach Be Your Own Pet, and much of this had to do with vocalist Jemina Pearl Abegg. She’s got the teen punk look down to a science, her growl is atrocious and only highlights her youth and much like a kid who’s just discovered swearing, she’s in the habit of placing a harder emphasis on words like “sex” or “fuck.”

Today, Jemina Pearl is 20, and her style remains completely unchanged. Even her lyrics for brand new song “Becky,” to the tune of “The Locomotion,” are pure high school humor, and that voice remains, well, atrocious.

But on stage, everything about her somehow works, from her aggression in song and dance to the way her hair swishes about. And though she proved a commanding frontwoman, it was calm and firm drummer John Eatherly, bleeding bassist Nathan Vasquez and tight guitarist Jonas Stein who proved that vocal duties do not equal instant leadership.