08.23.25, 8:00pm | Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave. | 21+ | $10
08.24.25, 4:00pm | Vintage Vinyl, 6610 Delmar Blvd. | All ages | Free
Dubbed by All Music Guide as “the world’s cutest band,” St. Louis indie pop band Bunnygrunt were a mainstay of the local music scene and on the college rock circuit in the 1990s. Though they’ve never really broken up, the band hasn’t been especially active in recent years—their last album, Vol. 4, came out in 2015, and they last “sullied a St. Louis stage” in 2018. But as summer 2025 comes to a close, there is a flurry of activity in Bunnygrunt Land, with two local shows and a short tour celebrating the release of a newly expanded reissue of the band’s debut full-length album, 1995’s Action Pants!
Action Pants! is a delightful slice of cuddlecore power pop, all jangly guitars and bobbing bass and punk rock-propulsive drums and sunny boy-girl vocals and super-catchy melodies packed into two-minute bursts of joy sure to appeal to fans of bands like the Apples in Stereo. Shortly before Action Pants! was originally released, singer-bassist Renee Dullum left the band, and the songs she wrote and sang were pulled from the record. The 30th anniversary “director’s cut” restores those “three-and-a-half songs” to complete the album as originally intended.
The album is available to stream and in stores now, but this Saturday, singer-guitarist Matt Harnish and singer-bassist (and original drummer) Karen Tyler join forces with new drummer Shawn Durham to officially release it to the world with a Saturday night set at Heavy Anchor (5226 Gravois Ave.). The trio will also have a short in-store performance at Vintage Vinyl (6610 Delmar Blvd.) in the U. City Loop (where Harnish has been manning the counters about as long as he’s been in Bunnygrunt) on Sunday afternoon before hitting the road for a series of six tour dates in Ohio and along the East coast.
The Heavy Anchor shows serves as an album release show not only for the anniversary edition of Action Pants!, but also for opener Glow in the Dark Flowers, self-described as “Southern Illinois’ premiere experimental punk duo,” who will launch their album R.T.Z. at the show. St. Louis band Call Letters is also on the bill.
Read an extensive interview with Bunnygrunt by St. Louis Magazine’s Mike Appelstein here and check out the band’s full tour itinerary below. Follow the latest news on the band at facebook.com/therealbunnygrunt.| Jason Green
Bunnygrunt on tour:
08.23.25 – St Louis – Heavy Anchor w/Call Letters & Glow In The Dark Flowers 7pm
08.24.25 – St Louis – Vintage Vinyl 4pm
08.27.25 – Dayton – South Park Tavern w/I Choose Izumi & Smug Brothers 7pm
08.28.25 – Cleveland – Happy Dog w/The Magnavoxs & The Ar-Kaics 7pm
08.29.25 – Philadelphia – Space 1026 w/Joe Jack Talcum & Idiot Mambo 7pm
08.30.25 – DromFest in Catskill NY w/every great band ever all day long
08.31.25 – Brooklyn – Young Ethel’s w/Harry Sings & Lightheaded 2pm matinee
09.01.25 – Washington DC – Rhizome w/Anno 3pm matinee 09.02.25 – Cincinnati – North Side Tavern w/Hyperstatic & Chuck2 7pm
