| Before the phrase "Adventure Club" became the title of Laura Jane Grace's electrifying and affirming new album, it was the name for her gaggle of adventurous friends in Greece. In the summer of 2024, Grace joined an artist residency program in Athens, embedding with Greek punk rockers there while she wrote songs about the sordid trials of her life and world - sobriety, autocracy, identity. By night, this new pickup band, including Grace's wife and collaborator, Paris Campbell Grace, would often play and record. But by day, they'd explore the ancient and beautiful landscape and the city's vibrant culture. They dove from beaches nestled in seaside caves into the Aegean and swam with sea turtles. They submitted to tourism, seeing the Parthenon and Epidaurus and breaking into the Panathenaic Stadium to run its track. They became addicted to Freddo espresso, a locals-only iced coffee topped with whipped milk. The lifestyle of this Adventure Club inspired her so much that, by the time she left Greece, shed unexpectedly finished Adventure Club, a new career apogee built from equal parts fun and fury, self-definition and self-deprecation. It is all Grace, continuing to recalibrate what punk rock means for her now. |
