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Pansy Division Celebrate 30 Years of Joy: Queercore veterans Pansy Division perform at Zebulon on Friday night, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their self-titled 45. Trap Girl and the Gilman Blacklist also play.

Speaking to this writer for SF Weekly in 2017, Jon Ginoli said, “When we began, I wanted the music to be very basic, very stripped-down because I wanted to make sure that it didn’t impede on the lyrics. I wanted it to be straight-forward and simple, and I wanted to make sure that the words were as important as the music. People would, of course, respond to the music first, but then they’ll hear the lyrics and go, ‘Oh my God.’ It was pretty indie-punk to start with, but I think over time it was less punky. Live, it had more of that. But on the records, it evolved into something that that was less punk than when it began, and that was fine with us. It was less minimal and a little more ambitious musically. But we’ve always wanted to write catchy songs, rock them up, and have lyrics that will be interesting and sometimes amusing.”

They’re still going strong and, with LGBTQ+ rights under treat from an activist Supreme Court, they’re more important than ever.

Pansy Division Celebrate 30 Years of Joy: The event takes place at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, July 1 at Zebulon

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