Hot Mulligan, Drug Church, Anxious and Arms Length 11-30-25 @ The Pageant, St. Louis.

Ethan Hill
Dec 1
3 min read

Growing up in Southern IL makes it damn near impossible to catch big bands unless you’re ready to drive forever, so most of my life has been spent taking trips to St. Louis for shows. One of the very first venues I ever went to was The Pageant, and it’s still one of my all-time favorites. So when I saw Hot Mulligan was playing there with Drug Church, Anxious, and Arms Length, I knew I HAD to be there. I hopped online to buy tickets… completely sold out. Just my luck.

Then somehow by miracle or fate, or whatever it may be; Brandon posted on his story that he’d trade Pokémon cards for guest spots lmao. I jokingly replied saying I’d trade him some stuff for a photo pass and told him how full-circle this moment was for me with The Pageant. To my absolute shock, he responded, put me down for two passes, and even told me to keep my stuff. Pretty sure I was at work when this happened because I immediately requested off for the day after the show.

I grew up watching bands at The Pageant and waiting out back to meet them, and now I was about to take photos of some of my favorite bands in one of my favorite venues? Completely surreal. Genuinely special.

Anxious opened the night and they fucking ripped. They’re another RFC band, and if you know me at all, you know that automatically means I’m obsessed. This was my first time seeing them live, and they blew me away. Some bands struggle to match their recorded sound, but Anxious has zero issues there. They were incredible, and I can’t wait to see them again.

Next up: Arms Length.This was the set I was least familiar with going in, but had me absolutely sold afterward. I’d heard them before, but never did the proper deep dive I should have. Their set was easily the craziest of the night; the crowd was going nuts, and I was dodging airborne feet during the first song lmao. I had a couple hours’ drive home afterward, so I used that time for the overdue deep dive, and yeah… I’m kicking myself for not being a bigger fan sooner. Big ups to Arms Length.

Then came Drug Church. Pure attitude. Pure rock. Patrick’s vocals are crunchy in the best way, and he spent the entire set yelling at people to stage dive and form a circle pit lmao. It was beautiful. I’ve been a Drug Church fan for a long time, and I was supposed to see them with Citizen a few years back but didn’t make it, so this show was redemption. And getting to see them from basically the closest possible spot? Unreal. DRUG CHURCH. Enough said.

Finally, the #1 hot new band: Hot Mulligan. The sexiest emo band alive. They opened with this sick TV-style intro full of edits of the band before actually hitting the stage, and the energy was ridiculous from the jump. About three songs in, Tades had to stop everything to break up a fight. Then he goes, “Imagine getting into a fight at a Hot Mulligan show...how fucking cringey is that?” Everyone cracked up, and then they went right back into the second verse like nothing happened.

The rest of the set was peak Hot Mulligan: jokes, stories, cursed song titles, and heartbreaking lyrics. The crowd screamed every word, and the whole room just felt full of love (minus the fighting dudes, idk what their problem was). It was perfect and exactly what I hoped for.

Can’t wait to catch another show soon!! Let’s run it back.

I left some photos here, but check out Instagram for more in the next couple of days!