Winona Fighter Serve a Five Star Course at Chicago's Subterranean

Winona Fighter's Yes, Chef Tour couldn't have been any more appropriately named considering Chicago cannot get its fill of the band. As a city our Winona Fighter appetite is apparently insatiable.

The initial signs of the hunger showed when the band made their first stop in the Windy City last April opening for Bayside. Despite being the first of four bands to take the stage, they played with the energy and sound of a headliner and absolutely stole to show from everyone else on the bill. I'm not sure how much merch they brought with them because only minutes after their set ended, their entire booth was completely empty. Fans weren't able to go online and order anything either since their official store was completely sold out as well.

The band's second stop in Chicago was at Riot Fest last September. Again, they were given an incredibly early slot (12:45 AM on the opening day of a 3-day fest) and again, they absolutely crushed their opportunity. Their 9 song set (that included a killer cover of Turnstile's 'Blackout') was again the stuff of headliners and was delivered to a surprisingly large crowd. Not that it was unexpected, but for the very first band on any given stage during work hours in mid-September heat, you usually don't see many notable crowds regardless of the band. But Winona Fighter is no ordinary band and all they did with their first two stops in Chicago was build their hype even more. It got annoying how many times I was stopped that day by other festival-goers asking which merchandise booth I was able to snag a Winona Fighter tshirt from. The answer was always a disappointing "none of them" since I had ordered it from their site when things were back in stock. Yet again, the band was leaving us wanting more.

The good news? More is what we got earlier this year with the Valentine's Day release of the band's full length debut My Apologies to the Chef. The better news? The album came with a nationwide headlining tour. And with local bands at each stop of the tour as the opener (Chicago being blessed with Pure Intention), this was set to be one of those tours that everyone who attends is talking about forever and everyone that missed out will probably lie about and say they went to anyway.

This being the Yes, Chef Tour, it's important to have an appetizer on the menu that can do justice to the high bar being set with the main course. Luckily, Chicago's own rock and roll tornado Pure Intention was more than ready to deliver, and holy shit did they deliver. Channeling the energy of bands like Eagles of Death Metal and Viagra Boys if they focused on playing Kill 'Em All-era Metallica riffs, it was a loud, punishing, and absolutely engrossing set. It's hard to imagine that just a three-piece band would be able to sustain the level of volume Pure Intention does, but they perfectly thread the needle of being not only loud but clear enough for you to hear each shredded note and bass kick right in your soul. At one point of the show, bassist Joe Oesterreich had to stop between songs and use quite a bit of duct tape to reattach a broken strap and I gotta imagine that kind of thing happens at Pure Intention shows on a regular basis.

Pure Intention was the perfect precursor, but the sold out crowd at Chicago's Subterranean would have been maximum amped for Winona Fighter if a five year old telling you about Minecraft for two hours was the opener. As much as Winona Fighter was ready to bring the energy on their well deserved headlining gig, the Subterranean crowd was more than willing to throw that energy right back at the band. From the opening notes of 'You Look Like a Drunk Phoebe Bridgers' and singer/guitarist Coco Kinnon's customary playful body slams into guitarist Dan Fuson and bassist Austin Luther, the capacity crowd of 400 felt like 4,000 as the entire venue jumped, screamed, moshed, laughed, and rocked for the entire sixteen song set that covered not only all of My Apologies to the Chef, but also a recently released bonus track from the album and an absolutely bonkers cover of The Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage'.

I've always described Winona Fighter's sound as close to Paramore but with a bit more punch-you-in-the-faceness (potentially from Kinnon's Boston upbringing). You don't sing things like "This is for the diehards who wanna blow out their lungs and burn this place to the ground/I have three words for you: somebody hit somebody" if you're looking to spread hugs and kisses. But for as rough and tumble as the band can be, Kinnon spent a good amount of time expressing her gratitude to the audience and an earnestness that might be surprising coming from the same person screaming 'Got a sharpened knife/I just can't play nice' just a few minutes later.

But don't let the touching moments here and there between songs fool you: Winona Fighter absolutely fucking rips. Fuson is delivering some of the crunchiest riffs in all of pop punk these days and Luther nails the impossible task of keeping the chaos of what goes on onstage during a live performance tied together and moving forward instead of spilling out over the edges. The final product is a concert that feels like a freight train, giving you just enough of a break between songs to catch enough breath to make it through the next song. The line between audience and band blurred constantly as Kinnon liberally used the first two rows of fans as human crutches as she waded in and out of the crowd.

The only bad news? By the time you read this, the band is most likely just putting the final touches on their tour, so you may not have a chance to catch them live for a bit. But their debut album isn't going anywhere, and neither is the band. Even if this is the first you're hearing of Winona Fighter (10/10 band name by the way), it's not going to be the last. Next time they play a festival in Chicago, the sun is most likely going to be setting. Next time they bring a headlining tour through, it won't be somewhere as small as 400 people. Get onboard now, Chef.

Winona Fighter Setlist - Subterranean, Chicago 7.17.25

You Look Like a Drunk Phoebe Bridgers
I Think You Should Leave
R U FAMOUS
Subaru
ATTENTION
JUMPERCABLES
I'M IN THE MARKET TO PLEASE NO ONE
(Don't Get) CLOSE
Swimmer's Ear
Sabotage
Swear to God That I'm (FINE)
Wlbrn St Tvrn
TALK
Johnny's Dead
DON'T WALLOW
HAMMS IN A GLASS