Bouncing Off The Walls With Cheerleader Roadkill
- Salvador Valencia Cabello
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
The Cathedral in Pomona is the newest addition to Pomona’s music scene, being the fourth venue in addition to the Fox Theatre, The Glasshouse and The Haven. The latter focusing on small local acts, sharing The Cathedral’s mission in highlighting new acts to the Pomona’s music scene. The third official show at The Cathedral was The Jins with openers BIG FUN and Chicago based band Cheerleader Roadkill, on March 23.
Though The Cathedral’s inaugural show on March 7th 2045, with local hometown hero Alejandro Aranda also known as scarypoolparty, the venue has been in operation for the latter half of 2024. The venue operates out of The Union, a multi operational building being the host to local shops. The Cathedral is split into two rooms, the main hall and south hall. The latter being smaller than its sister room, often the space being delegated to openers for the headlining band.
The show I attended was alternative rock band The Jins West Coast tour, with support from Cheerleader Roadkill and BIG FUN. The show was held in The Cathedral's south hall, with an outpouring mix of punk and alternative youth, bouncing up and down to the crushing synths and fury of guitars. The south hall provides quite an intimate space for any artist performing, a low close to the audience stage. With the revival of nineties alternative rock being quite evident at the show, opener Cheerleader Roadkill taking the stage after BIG FUN, notably their cover of Sexy Back set the audience into a blizzard of dance. The Jins, the headlining band of the night, played a set consisting of 90’s rock revival, particularly with reverence of Nirvana’s angst, the band’s newest single “You’re Going Far” is a particularly driving tune with energetic surf rock guitars and driving rhythm section.
Cheerleader Roadkill line up consists of Jesse on drums, Jack on bass and Noel on vocals and guitar, the band’s thirty minute set included cuts from their 2024 debut record, Golf Course Intercourse, taking great stride in the bed that Green Day’s Dookie made, with the crowd jumping at the seams for energetic pop punk with a sarcastic flair. Notable cut’s from their thirty minute set were the band’s new single “Hold On” and a reminiscent cover of The Vaselines song “Molly's Lips” sent the crowd into a frenzy.
What is particularly interesting is frontman Noel’s other notoriety online, as the man behind comic account @goobsmooch, where absurdist comedy reigns supreme. Fans from the crowd often scream in affirmation from the account, along with fans creating their merch, with one fan wearing a shirt with hand drawn rendering of goobsmooch characters. Along with fans rather than asking for a signature but a quick drawing of one his characters.
In an era of influencers and content creators, audience and fan translation from the online spaces to real ones is a particularly fine line on whether two projects can bounce off each other. The jump from a high online presence, to the work of touring on the indie level is a development of how social media spaces such as Tik Tok or Instagram, tunneling fans between two distinct projects but when they share the same author. It is ultimately a sense of authenticity that links fans of the @goobsmooch account and Cheerleader Roadkill, the comedy that runs through the account relies solely on the absurd yet relatable dwellings of midwest living combine that with the sarcastic yet honest lyrics of Cheerleader Roadkill, synchronicity of the two result in a fanbase that find enjoyment in both projects, but isn't solely relied upon knowing one or the other. Listen to Cheerleader Roadkill’s newest single “Hold On” available on all streaming platforms.
Check out this latest release and listen to more of Cheerleader Roadkill on Spotify & YouTube.