Mad Meg w/ Speakeasy Streets

Assembled and based in New York, the multicultural and hard-rocking band with overtones of Eastern European existential anguish has toured extensively in the countries of the former Soviet Bloc and their tracks are in rotation on Mexico’s major radio stations. They shared the stage with such luminaries as Rasputina and Emir Kusturica, and recorded a live album at a female prison in Lithuania, released in November of 2019.
The leader of Mad Meg, poet, artist, filmmaker and photographer Ilya Popenko, is a towering and unpalatable figure, whose zombie-like singing is accompanied by a morbidly fascinating performance style.
Here is how the band explain their style, which they refer to as punk crooner noir: “Punk is a general attitude toward society - one of personal sovereignty, an embodied admission of the impossibility of conforming to any herd. It also describes a motley style. Crooner is a masculine type of singing from the mid-20th century, encompassing irony, sensitivity, and good old moxie. Noir is an aesthetic in which the dark side is very prevalent.”

Speakeasy Streets is an eclectic mix of the old and new sounds. The band brings Swing and Gypsy Jazz from the Prohibition era, and infuses this with Hip Hop (and a punky edge). They appropriately bring the term, "Gyp-Hop" to the table. The band formed in early 2016 in Brooklyn, New York. By forming in one of the world's most diverse cities, it was inevitable that the band became a multicultural mix. In Speakeasy Streets you'll find members from Israel, Chile, France, South Africa, and of course New York City. The mix of cultures reflects in the music, and brings out the eclectic sounds of Speakeasy Streets!
Mad Meg -