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Cruelties (San Diego)

05/13/2025

Cruelties + Thieves, June 5th at Twilight Cafe - Preview

By MATT HANSEN // San Diego darkwave artist will team up with Thieves (Ministry Tribute) and PlasticBlood for a show that fully acknowledges the turbulence of our times

  The year round sunny climate of San Diego isn’t closely associated with the moods of darkwave and industrial. Yet there are a handful of bands from SD that shun the sunlight in favor of making music more suitable for the shadows, these include: Cold Cave, New Skeletal Faces, Glass Spells, and most recently, Cruelties.

Cruelties is the solo project of Justin Cota (Dream Burglar, Vermin Class) and is music for the dystopian era we are currently going through. His most recent single “Shiny and new” gives off arpeggiating synths and whip cracks amid his vulnerable lines bargaining to go back in time when our perception of the world was less corruptible and bleak. Other tracks like “Naked” have a danceable synthpunk sound that profess that even in purity there is darkness. Cruelties will be playing June 5^th at Twilight Café alongside PlasticBlood and Thieves.

With the announcement of the band Ministry calling it quits very soon, Portlanders won’t be able to see Ministry for one last time without making the road trip to Seattle for their current tour. But why travel when you have the PNW’s own Ministry tribute, Thieves, playing in your own backyard? As a reimagining of one of the most influential bands in industrial music, Thieves is every bit as politically charged and sonically hardened as the real thing. And it’s a rare occasion to see them on a bill without other tribute bands.

Opening will be PlasticBlood a local three-piece environmental punk band blending punk beats and goth rock melodies with lyrics about the climate crisis. Their track “Where Will You Hide?” is an ominous 4 minutes of gloomy guitars and gripping bass that prove the band is influenced just as much by Bauhaus as they are by the Misfits.

If you’re in need of musical therapy that won't ignore the state of crisis we are all feeling right now, this show will be proof that you are not alone if what you are experiencing. Where life creates a need, art will provide.  

SHOW ALERT: Thieves / Cruelties / PlasticBlood at Twilight Cafe on Thursday, June 5th, 2025. Doors 7:30PM / ($10) 21+ Show

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