Best Video Film & Cultural Center features a triple bill of Fri., Sept. 18, of PROBLEMS (Chicago, IL); Wow, Okay, Cool (CT), and Void Ripper (CT). The show begins at 7 PM and the cover is $10.
Chicago-based Darren Keen is the one-person band called PROBLEMS. PROBLEMS has extensively toured Europe, New Zealand, and the USA, opening for Peaches, Sleaford Mods, Getdown Services, Dan Deacon, Pile, death’s dynamic shroud, Mezerg, Lightning Bolt, Wolf Eyes, Plack Blague, and many others. PROBLEMS makes composer-driven electronic music with live vocals that is sometimes very fun and is sometimes very beautiful and is always interesting, singing about dogs, glue, and nuts.
12” LP “PROBLEMS GETTING HARD” was released 4/10 on The Record Machine. Available on all streamers except spotify, because they fund AI weapons of war, this record was another leap forward in an already progressive catalog. Exploring the cycle of life and debt via a weightloss journey funded using buy now pay later schemes and musically anchored by the Fender Bass VI. The 12” LP “Enter The Annals” was released 2024 on The Record Machine, and is now sold out.
Wow, Okay, Cool produces panicked, boisterous songs that convey an urgency in desperate times. The post-punk project is the handiwork of New Haven, CT-based musicians Tim Fitzpatrick (vocals, synthesizer), Juniper Cadence (guitar), Dan Barletta (bass), and Brendan Galvin (drums). Since 2023, the group has been a staple in the Connecticut DIY punk scene, delivering an explosive live show experience throughout New England and the Tri-State area.
“If This Is Where It Got Us, What Good Is It?,” the band’s self-produced debut LP releasing September 4th, 2026, is a collection of 9 songs channeling the precarity and anxieties faced in the modern United States. The result is a flurry of post-punk riffs, violently-precise drums, and wailing vocals raging against the authors of our immiseration. From landlords, to private equity firms, to a feckless Democratic establishment, “If This is Where it Got Us, What Good is it?,” demands accountability from those who stand as gatekeepers to a life of dignity for the working class.
Wow, Okay, Cool's live shows deliver screaming hooks from Cadence, and a bombastic, chaotic performance, with Fitzpatrick’s manic presence drawing comparisons to The Blood Brother’s Johnny Whitney and Refused’s Dennis Lyxzen.
VOID RIPPER puts digicore, EDM, and chiptune through a blender and launches the contents into the sun. Enjoy aggressive, cinematic dance music straight into your DNA from the seams of reality where the veil is thinnest (New Haven, CT).