For Austin Durry, music was always the end goal — he was in a series of “failed punk bands”, as he jokes, and nothing stuck until he brought his sister Taryn on board. The result is Durry, a duo that already feels like a cult favorite based on the crowd that packed Phoenix’s Crescent Ballroom for their second-ever show in Arizona and somehow felt like an established community.
The duo draws musical inspiration from Austin’s punk background and has the DIY ethos to match. “Dead Media”, which they played during the back half of their set, was first hidden as a secret track on their This Movie Sucks vinyl that you had to manually move the needle to find. They also made some comments about van life (their vehicle and home for this tour), and rather than using pre-shot video as their stage backdrop, a camcorder took live footage that appeared on the rounded-screen TVs behind them. It was very 90s living room in the best way, and it kept everyone in the moment rather than fixated on a production element.
The music is fun, too, of course — “Bully”, “Polaroid” and “I’m Fine (No Really)” had the crowd moving, and “Porcupine” saw the opening band come back onstage for a game of Super Smash Bros. But it was a more mellow moment that really stole the show.
Before launching into “The Long Goodbye”, Austin shared a story that silenced the room: A fan who’d recently lost his brother to suicide found one of Durry’s records in the mail, addressed to his late sibling. He decided to come to a show and afterward, told Austin he felt like he’d gotten one more night with his brother.
The rest of the show felt like a thank-you to the fans who have made the journey so special, and Durry brought it home with “Who’s Laughing Now” and “Suburban Legend”. It’s music for the people who still believe in feeling something real, and at Crescent Ballroom, everyone did.
