A giant earwig jabs her pincers toward the three members of Lifeguard in a loud, snapping motion. Singer-bassist Asher Case, 17, turns away and shudders at the sound. “Oh, this one’s fucked,” says singer-guitarist Kai Slater, 18, surveying the five-foot-long animatronic insect who’s protecting 30 eggs sprawled around her. Drummer Isaac Lowenstein, 16, takes the disgusted cue and steers the group towards a massive spider who bobs one leg up and down. Everyone stands still for a while to marvel at its size, and then Case reaches out with one finger to touch it, E.T.-style.
The trio is making their way through Underground Adventure, a decades-old exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Growing up, each one of them endured countless school trips here, turning them into unwitting tour guides on this rainy June afternoon.
“One of my most traumatic memories was here,” says Case. They go on to recount a time in first grade when they were separated from the rest of their class on a school trip and retreated to the safety of an oversized cicada shell with another stranded friend. “I remember thinking, Well, this is the end, and we’re dead.” For old time’s sake, Case curls up inside a shell again, hugging their knees to fit.
Case’s memory isn’t as old as it might sound: Lifeguard already have one album, a few EPs, and two 7″ singles to their name, but none of them have even graduated high school yet. “What’s beautiful is that we had no goals when forming Lifeguard,” says Slater. “We just wanted to play with each other and have fun.”
In the style of Fugazi’s 13 Songs, the band recently released their new EP, Dressed in Trenches, alongside their 2022 Crowd Can Talk EP as their debut for longtime indie rock standard-bearer Matador. Lead single “17-18 Lovesong” is a pent-up burst of melodic angst and perfectly timed build-ups, and the same holds true for the six-minute-long “Ten Canisters (OFB),” which thrashes its way through distortion and gnarled guitar solos. Across both EPs, the band’s post-hardcore song structures, experimental indulgences, and fleeting post-punk hooks explode into the scruffy cacophony that has turned them into one of their city’s must-see young live bands.
