PROSTITUTE - WORKMANS CLUB
Prostitute - The Workman’s Club
Words: David Carr
The first thing to clear up is the band name is a verb, to prostitute oneself. They are a four-piece from Dearborn, Michigan, which is 55% Arab-American. A multicultural state under siege in Trump’s iteration of the U.S. and one that has just elected Abdul El-Sayed on the Democratic side of the Senate race. This melting pot has seen communities persecuted in the wake of 9/11 and with Dearborn having the largest Lebanese American population, the Israeli assault too.
This background has made the band one of the most essential acts of the moment. Their album Attempted Martyr was self-released in 2024 and features a man wearing a tagelmust on the cover. It has gained an amazing word-of-mouth momentum running parallel to a political divide which has become more incendiary. Picked up by Mute and reissued in March of this year, the world is spreading even faster and wider.
The band gives off a powder-keg vibe as if the whole thing could explode or implode at any moment, making it for me the most anticipated gig of the year. Not alone in this thought, the gig venue was upgraded and sold out, of course.
Vocalist Moe Kazra takes to the stage. The crowd is still buzzing from a frenzied performance by Nerves. He exhales sharply and rhythmically, somewhere between a huff and a groan. When he completes his breathing ritual, the crowd is silenced, waiting. The tension is broken by the opening bars of ‘Body Meat’, a musical smack in the mouth. Kazra spits lyrics into the room, some of his art imitating life “Reveal yourself to the people, in all your glory adorned in vain”. The guitarist cuts an intimidating figure wearing a similar tagelmust to the album cover, but it’s shedded quickly as the heat rises in the room.
Presumably keen to move on from an album released in 2024 and first born during COVID, they race into a sextet of new tracks. There’s talk of a follow-up album on the horizon, and it sounds in good fettle. Almost all uptempo and ferocious, it’s saturated in Middle Eastern sounds. The crowd heaves from wall to wall. I’m not sure I’ve seen a more dynamic sea of people.
He teases the return to more familiar ground in ‘Joumana Kayrouz’ and ‘Judge’ by asking “Do you wanna dance?…then let’s dance”. Pandemonium hits its height with their closer ‘All Hail’ in which Kazra baits those who have spoken against them by screaming “I’m the motherfucker who took down the towers”.
During the set outro, a tape plays of impassioned speech in Arabic. The bassist clings to the wall, exhausted, trying to maintain a vertical stance. The heat in the room is oppressive, as soaked t-shirts cling to assorted bodies. Prostitute belies their name. Uncompromising, whatever they’re selling. I’m buying.