Culture Abuse made their way from sunny Northern California to the city of brotherly love for the third time to play a show at Union Transfer on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Self-described ”kinda grunge, kinda punk, kinda hardcore” band played with SoCal bands Wavves and Joyce Manor on this tour.

Band members include vocalist David Kelling, bassist Shane Plitt, guitarist Nick Bruder and guitarist Junebug. Drummer Ross Traver played with them on this tour. They formed as a group four years ago, and have since gone from playing small coffee shops and living in a San Francisco practice space to performing at SXSW in Austin in 2016 and at this year’s Riot Fest in Chicago, on the same bill as headliners Nine Inch Nails and Jawbreaker.

“The original intent was to play music because we all wanted to play music,” bassist Plitt said in the green room backstage. When asked how they rose to fame, he answered: “I think because none of us are bad people.”

Culture Abuse has three releases to date: their first EP The Day Dreams of Nothing, 7-inch release Spray Paint the Dog, and breakout 2016 LP Peach were all released via 6131 Records. In June, they signed to Epitaph Records in Hollywood.

The band tours regularly throughout the U.S. and Canada. On earlier trips to Philly, they shared a stage with Night Sins at Ortlieb’s in June 2016 and then later with Philly-based Nothing, and Citizen from Run for Cover Records at Union Transfer in July of this year.

The touring life can be hard for some, but Culture Abuse members have embraced it.

“(I like) getting to hang out with friends I can’t hang out with any more, getting to meet new friends that I never thought I would ever have, and getting to play music for 30 minutes every night,” Plitt said. “That’s the best part of touring.”

“We get to play music, and it’s music I actually like,” said guitarist Bruder. “It’s fun, it’s sick. I dunno. It’s just, I love music and I’m having a great time on tour.” This year, they’ve been on the road for four months, but tour length can always vary. “There’s always been a thing in the back of my mind where like, ‘Oh shit, what if my living situation falls through, what if this happens, what if that happens,’” he said. “But I dunno, there’s something cool about just hanging on tight and going for the ride – whatever happens, happens. I mean like, anything can happen at any time anyway, so you might as well like be doing something you love and care about, you know?”

When things get tough, just keep going. “Battle through the hard parts, have fun, play good, take it somewhat seriously but also like have fun and don’t be afraid to just like, accept everything that happens because in the end you’ll have a bunch of stories and a bunch of memories to pull from, y’know,” Bruder said. “One of my friends, he said he can justify anything on tour by just saying ‘making memories.’ So you can look back at the shitty, ‘Aww man, we had the worst night on the tour,’ and ‘We made no money, we only played for the people that work at the venue.” At the end of the day, it’s ‘You know, I’m really glad I did that, I still have the memory, I have the story, it’s fun.’”

Guitarist Junebug is the only member not born in California, and he moved to San Francisco from Boston in 2010. “The friends that I knew (in SF), they were like ‘You should move here,’ and I said ‘Okay, sure, that sounds great,’ so I did. It was hard, but I did it. And I haven’t asked anybody for anything, you know? Like, people, sometimes they move out for the first time, like ‘I need 300 dollars, mom can you help me out?’ I moved out of my mom’s house, lived on my own for like 6 years and then I moved across the entire country to California. I never went back again.”

With rising popularity comes overseas tours, and so far they’ve they played in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. “I guess my favorite part would be literally being lost and not knowing anything at all about where I’m at,” Junebug said. “I’ve been across the United States, plenty of times with bands I was in before, just traveling in general, so doing a Culture Abuse tour is like ‘Yeah, I’ve been across the United States, I’ve been to all these states.’ But going to Europe, which I’ve never been to before, going to the UK and going to all these countries where they don’t even speak English, it’s like, who would do that? It’s crazy.”

With all the travel they do, it’s inevitable they’ll settle on favorite restaurants for each stop they make. The band’s favorite local Philly food spots are John’s Roast Pork on E. Snyder Avenue and Spice C on N. 10th Street. “(Spice C) is like a Chinese restaurant that Nick from Nothing was like ‘Yo, you have to go to this spot, because it will set you straight,’ as he said, because we were all hungover,” Plitt said. “Some shit happened. Great Chinese food place, great soup.”

Pat’s is not among their highest-rated stops. “We’ve been to Pat’s Cheesesteaks literally like four times, being here and coming here, but, I’m not gonna talk shit, but Pat’s, it’s like touristy,” Junebug said. “I don’t know much about Philly. The only thing I know about Philly is ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) was here, the wrestling promotion, and they were very popular, so my favorite thing about Philly would be ECW.”

For some, being in a band is a hobby, and for others it’s a lifestyle. “It’s the only job I’m probably not going to get fired from, because all my other jobs I’ve been fired from,” Plitt said.

https://youtu.be/-3Lva3SxMe4

To hear their music, visit https://cultureabuse.bandcamp.com. For more info, go to http://cultureabuse-uncensored.com.