Britain and America’s ‘Special Relationship’ is currently strained on a geopolitical level, but in the folk-punk sphere, things have never been stronger. Washington’s Pigeon Pit and Nottingham’s own Cheap Dirty Horse have united for a joint-headline tour across the UK this month, and their evening at the Carousel was everything you would expect from the two bands: loud, bold, unapologetically pro-LGBT+, and above all, a lot of fun...
For the uninitiated, folk punk is a hybrid genre which originated in the 1980s in both the UK and US. I will not attempt to describe its specificities in too much depth, as the folk punk subreddit seems to disagree every other week on what counts and what doesn’t. For older examples, listen to Violent Femmes, Billy Bragg, AJJ and Pat The Bunny. Common features include confessional, overtly political lyrics, three-chord song structures and incorporation of traditional bluegrass instrumentation. Appropriately, there was a musician with a banjo outside the venue entertaining the pre-show crowd with rounds of Brave as a Noun, Bella Ciao and Your Heart is a Muscle. You know you’re in for a good night when even the queue has music!
The warm-up act, Fallowed, featured several members of Cheap Dirty Horse, and played what they call ‘Midlands Emo’ - an offshoot of the Midwest emo genre. Their twenty-five minute set featured reverb-heavy rock songs that blended seamlessly into one another, and a poignant tribute to a friend and former bandmate who passed away in Micki’s Song.
Second on stage were Cheap Dirty Horse, a band who have built a steady, loyal and adoring fanbase in Nottingham from 2024. They’re a Midlands group through and through, even releasing a Chappell Roan cover album entitled The Rise and Foal of a Midlands Horse. Their lineup has changed over the years and seems reasonably collaborative and fluid, but onstage at the carousel were Finbar Ansbe (guitar, vocals), Sydney Strong (guitar, vocals) Amy Eggleston (banjo, vocals), Ellen Bradley (accordion, vocals), Adam Moss (drums, additional percussion) and Solstice Kio (bass, vocals). Cheap Dirty Horse takes folk punk to its most brash, humorous extremes, backed by competent musicianship across the board.
On The Rob, the song which brought the band online virality, quickly turned the Carousel’s small pub floor into a pit - the more shove-averse retreated to the side to let the moshers have their fun. Infectiously catchy and cheekily suggestive, the group posit that Robin Hood would have supported shoplifting from corporations as a modern iteration of his ‘steal from the rich, give to the poor’ ethos. This sense of humour is echoed further by Cheap Dirty Horse in another fan favourite, Your Dad, a satire of transphobia that requires audience participation. My personal highlight of the set was G for Gendetta, a bossa nova-fused lament of the restrictive nature of binary gender roles.
The horses are evidently capable of tackling the more serious sides of the issues they sing about, likely inferred from their lived experiences (several members of the band identify as transgender or nonbinary). Fin and Sydney make for charismatic frontpeople, and Ellen (also lead singer of Fallowed) provides interesting textures on the accordion. P.R.O.T.E.C.T.T.R.A.N.S.K.I.D.S, a song inspired by a popular activist slogan, strikes a chord with the crowd, slowing the party to a meditation.Taking some time between songs to speak about the recent legislative struggles the trans community have faced in the UK and abroad, their message was serious, but one of hope and solidarity.
The Carousel is becoming a popular spot for alternative groups touring the UK, and Pigeon Pit’s lead singer Lomes Oleander made a point to acclaim the value of non-profit community spaces in any city. Oleander is a beautiful performer to watch, full of dedication and genuine joy in her craft, and a glance at the audience would confirm how much the music means to the band's listeners. Her lyrics come thick, fast and candid, comparable to the early work of Kimya Dawson. Songs such as Soup For My Family, Milk Crates, Empties and Cherry, my favourite from their latest album Leash Aggression, are amusing, relatable, and honest about the frustrations of modern existence while still finding beauty in it. Wichitalk, introduced by Oleander as “a song for the girl I never let myself be”, examines the suppression of one’s true identity, a sentiment which will likely ring true for many transgender individuals who’ve struggled to accept themselves.
We can choose to turn away from hate...
Rounded out by musicians including Bo Lark (fiddle, vocals), Mads Bun (banjo) and Jim Rhian (pedal steel guitar), Pigeon Pit’s 90-minute set passed the ultimate live test with flying colours: the punters couldn’t get enough of them. Using this rapt attention to her advantage, Oleander spoke to the crowd about her experiences as a trans woman, highlighting both the strength and joy found in community and the disempowerment of being told your existence is a mistake or aberration. She praised Americans fighting against ICE, emphasised the shared resistance in Britain and the United States as a sign of common values and decency, and encouraged audience members to get involved in community organising. Her demeanour was encouraging and urgent but not condescending or preachy, and she has evident skill as a public speaker.
Before Pigeon Pit played their last song of the evening, they delivered a point on propaganda, which I will paraphrase here: it attempts to tell us what to do, and in that instruction, reveals that we have the power that lies in choice. We can choose to turn away from hate, to embrace those different from us, and to commit to the work of building a better system, even if that means tearing down existent ones. It’s a sentiment I can agree with, especially when I think of spaces like the Carousel, which exemplifies community and creativity over revenue, and has rightfully gained a reputation as the place to be for Nottingham-based punk
Pigeon Pit performed at The Carousel on 5th June 2026, with support from Cheap Dirty Horse and Fallowed.
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