Q&A: Bev Rage & the Drinks Confront the Shadows with New Single “Phantoms”

MusicQ&A

Aug 27

INTERVIEW

FEW BANDS EMBODY CHICAGO’S COLLISION OF GRIT, GLAMOR AND PROTEST QUITE LIKE BEV RAGE & THE DRINKS — Chicago’s drag-punk torchbearers Bev Rage & the Drinks are back with their new single “Phantoms,” that channels that spirit into a post-punk anthem about love’s lingering shadows and the work it takes to stay present.

Recorded at the storied Electrical Audio by Brian Fox and mastered by Carl Saff, “Phantoms” sharpens the band’s sound while expanding their emotional scope. It’s a track about resilience in the face of memory, how even after growth and healing, the ghost of a past love can haunt you at unexpected moments.

“Sometimes you think you’ve moved on—you’ve healed, you’ve grown—but those memories can still show up and cause chaos,” frontwoman Beverly Rage shares. “The real challenge is keeping those shadows at bay and realizing how special the present can be. The message of a love song can be simple, and that’s what makes it powerful.”

Musically, “Phantoms” is as sharp as it is catchy, with amplified hooks, a relentless rhythm section, and Beverly’s razor-edged vocal delivery. It’s the sound of a band stretching into new territory while keeping their roots intact — a perfect listen for fans of Amyl and the Sniffers, Wet Leg and The Beths.

Fronted by drag queen Beverly Rage, the band has built a decade-long reputation for blending brash riffs, underground pageantry and unflinching storytelling. Named Chicago’s Best Punk Band of 2024, they’ve shared stages with acts like Pansy Division and BULLY. Now, with “Phantoms” ushering in their upcoming album, the Drinks are channeling ten years of grit and growth into their sharpest, most ambitious work to date.

For Beverly Rage, fronting a punk band in drag wasn’t just about theatrics — it was about protest. “When I was starting the band, I was thinking of pulling in drag because I had been doing drag on the side, and it felt like a natural connection, because drag and punk are both based in protest,” Beverly says. “It really made sense to me, and I was doing drag in a nontraditional way.”

That decision has become central to Bev Rage & the Drinks’ identity. Where many bands rely on grit alone, Beverly brings a fearless commitment to visibility into spaces where drag isn’t always expected.

“Being a drag queen in a punk rock band is interesting from many perspectives,” Beverly says. “Just being on stage as a drag queen is hard, so being able to be in drag in front of audiences that don’t typically experience drag is why I do this. I want to bring drag into places that are not used to seeing it, so that’s music venues, street fests, on tour in small cities where maybe there isn’t that much drag going on.”

As Bev Rage & the Drinks gear up to celebrate their 10-year anniversary in 2026, the Chicago drag-punk powerhouse is teasing a new chapter with “Phantoms,” signaling their most evolved sound yet.

LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. What inspires your artistic style and sound?

BEVERLY: I'm Beverly Rage. I'm the singer and guitarist of Bev Rage & the Drinks, which is a Chicago-based band, and we have been a band for about nine years, coming up on 10, in 2026. My inspiration has changed throughout all of my music career. I've been a musician for over 20 years at this point in a bunch of different types of bands, and this is my longest running one. It's an interesting project, because the sound of this band has changed a lot over its time. At first, it was simple pop songs with a punk edge, that classic pop-punk, Ramones sound, and then it evolved into being more rock n’ roll-esque, and now we're all growing older, we're leaning into the post punk sound, and that's what our new album is going to really embrace. It will be more post punk, a little bit darker, just a little more all over the place, pulling in these inspirations through different types of punk rock music.

LUNA: You’ve been called “Chicago’s Best Punk Band of 2024.” For any readers who aren’t familiar with Chicago’s music scene, how has the scene and its community inspired or impacted your sound?

BEVERLY: Chicago’s music scene is one of the best in the world. I think there's a music genre spanning all over. So just talking about the punk side of things — and not thinking about the other types of amazing music that's being made in Chicago — the punk scene in Chicago has been around forever, and it was a huge inspiration to me growing up in the Midwest. I moved to Chicago about 20 years ago, and pretty much right after moving here, I got involved in the music scene by going to shows. There's countless venues and DIY spaces and small clubs, big clubs, bigger avenues to see things. And that's not even saying the street fests in Chicago, which have tons of incredible music. Being in Chicago meant that I was really involved with music in all of these different ways.

One of the reasons why I decided to start Bev Rage & the Drinks almost 10 years ago was because I wasn't really seeing anything like us around. I was dabbling in drag. I was a punk rock musician for 10 plus years prior to that, and I was like, “Why am I not combining these two interests of mine?” And there have been drag musicians that have been in bands before, but no one was really doing it in the same way that we do it now. I combined drag punk rock music, played my guitar, sang on stage, wrote all my own music, wrote all original songs, and tried to make sure that my community is being seen in the music scene. One thing that I was missing when I first started in the Chicago music scene was not really seeing people that were like me or just queer music in general. Growing up, I was always really inspired by powerful women in music. When I started listening to punk rock music, I was listening to The Muffs, Lunachicks and The Breeders. I was always really inspired by powerful women. When I was starting to do drag and starting to think about pulling drag into the music scene, I was really inspired by all of these incredible women that I would be surrounded by sonically growing up. I'm hoping that I pull a little bit of that powerful woman energy into the music that I bring into the world, and pull it back to Chicago a little bit, so I wasn't really seeing all that much of that, or the queer representation in music when I started. It's really nice to see that evolve.

There is a lot more queer music in Chicago these days than there was 10 plus years ago. I think that is a testament to allowing queerness to be in the music scene. If queer people can go to venues and feel safe and be able to be like, “Oh, I see myself here and on stage, then maybe I should start my own band, or maybe I should try to make something more powerful in the world.” I think that just seeing someone like me, a seven foot tall, very outwardly queer person playing music, I think it helps. I think it's pretty cool that we were voted as the best punk band in Chicago. It's really amazing to have a very niche queer band to receive that honor. We thank our music scene for that too, because that is mostly voted on by our peers. It really shows that people understand what we're trying to do here.

LUNA: Your newest single “Phantoms” explores how past relationships continue to linger in our present. What drew you to this theme, and why did it feel right for this moment in your songwriting?

BEVERLY: Everything I write comes from my life and true things that occur to me or around me. I'm not very good at telling a tale that's not true, so this song is no different. The interesting thing about this song is, if you boil it down to its elements, it's really just a love song. It's a pretty typical love song, and it can be understood by anyone. A lot of our music really is very queer focused, but this one doesn't really have to be. Anyone can listen to the song and be like, “That's something that I recognize within myself.”

When I wrote this song, I was thinking about how, for the first time in a while, I am in a very functional, good relationship, which is something that is not very common in my past history. I was in this very settled, nice relationship, and even being in that state, you would still feel like there were these ghosts from your past rearing up and saying you're not good enough, or you don't deserve this. I feel like that's very common with people, whenever they find something that actually works, is that there are these lingering phantoms trying to pull you out of that and remind you of your past mistakes. That's what this song is about, is trying to recognize that these elements exist and that your past has happened, but also allow yourself to move forward to evolve within yourself.

Lyrically, I'm really proud of this song. I think that it's a pretty powerful song. Lyrically, the chorus has pulled me right back. It's pulling you back to your past, but that's like bad thoughts pulling you away from where you are right now and then, musically, I think that we have really accomplished a lot with this song moving forward. It has a really driving bass and the rhythm section has these hooks in it that gets stuck in your head, which I really love about our music.

LUNA: I would love to touch on the creative process behind “Phantoms” as it feels like a step forward in your sound. How did recording at Electrical Audio with Brian Fox influence the track’s energy and production? How did the song evolve from its initial idea to its final version?

BEVERLY: It is definitely a step forward in our musical journey. Everything we're writing now is going to be on our next album, which we're really excited about. Recording at Electrical is something that I feel like all Chicagoans have a dream of doing, and this was our first time recording there. Outside of Chicago, everyone knows Electrical Audio. So sadly, it happened after Steve Albini passed, so it was a sad moment to step inside and know that he wouldn't be there. But, recording at Electrical, it's like this really beautiful room that you just step inside and you can feel the past in there. It was no different than when we went into Electrical to record these songs. Recording with Brian is always a treat. Brian Fox recorded our last two albums as well, so those two albums, plus these two singles that are out, “Gay Panic” and “Phantoms.” He's always really helpful when we're recording with him. He pulls our sound in a direction that we didn't necessarily expect it to go, so it's always a treat to record with Brian.

LUNA: Drag and punk both embrace storytelling, protest and defiance. How do those identities fuel each other in Bev Rage & the Drinks’ live shows and songwriting? What feels most liberating about bringing them together on stage?

BEVERLY: When I was starting the band, I was thinking of pulling in drag because I had been doing drag on the side, and it felt like a natural connection, because drag and punk are both based in protest. It really made sense to me, and I was doing drag in a nontraditional way. Being a drag queen in a punk rock band is interesting from many perspectives. Just being on stage as a drag queen is hard, so being able to be in drag in front of audiences that don't typically experience drag is why I do this. I want to bring drag into places that are not used to seeing it, so that's music venues, street fests, on tour in small cities where maybe there isn't that much drag going on.

That can also have its challenges, though, because when people approach you that aren't used to interacting with a drag queen, you can have some interactions that might not be great. There might be some less progressive people at these shows that don't really understand what you're trying to do, or what or who you are. There can be people who will intentionally use the wrong pronouns for you, call you dude and man and stuff like that, which is really frustrating and it feels intentional. I think that we established ourselves as a band, but when we were first starting, we had a hard time being taken seriously as a true band, because people would see us and be like, that's that drag queen band. They're probably just a joke. They're probably just using a gimmick. And none of that is true. We are always music first, and we want to make sure our music is really solid. We have this incredible live show that goes along with it that makes me very proud to do what I do and show it how I show it. We try to bring in elements of a drag show with a punk rock show. I don't think people will ever get bored seeing us. There's often costume changes. There's often things that I say on stage that are part of the show, and little games that we play sometimes, but the root of our live show is the music and making sure that we're putting on a really entertaining 45 minutes every time we're on stage.

LUNA: How do you hope listeners connect with this new era of music from Bev Rage & the Drinks? What emotions or messages do you want to leave with them?

BEVERLY: There's many ways that we want people to connect. I think right now, it's more important than ever to be in a band like ours, because of the state of the world, not just the US. There are atrocities going on around the world, and a lot of that has to do with LGBTQ+ people ,with women, minorities and immigrants. We want to be a way for people to understand that we are out here. We are doing what we can to bring some sort of joy into people's lives, while also being able to protest at the same time. Being on stage doing drag with an all queer band is a very important thing to do in places that don't normally see it.

What we want is to spread our live show around as much as we can, so hopefully that means touring more. Hopefully that means being seen online more and being able to get our music out there to as many people as we can, because the unique thing about our band is that even if you don't see us, when you listen to us, you can hear that it's a queer band. You can tell by our music, which is pretty cool. We really want to release this album, make sure that it gets in as many people's hands as possible, and then tour behind it as much as we can. We have some big ambitions for this next year, so we really want to get around the country and maybe get over to Europe next year after this album is out, make sure that we're playing outside of Chicago as much as possible. We love Chicago, but we don't need to play here all the time, so as long as we're spreading the beverage around the world, then we'll be happy.

LUNA: What’s fueling your fire right now—musically or personally—that’s pushing you into this next chapter?

BEVERLY: I am incredibly motivated right now. The band underwent a lineup change recently. We got a new guitar player who's bringing some really incredible new ideas to the band, which we're very excited about, so our sound is going to evolve even more with this next album. We're getting in the studio again to finish off the album in December, which means it will be out probably late spring, early summer next year. We are really revamping our live show experience as well, so our live show is going to evolve a bit into 2026. 2026 is our 10th year anniversary as a band, so it's a really good time to reinvent yourself and make sure that we're really putting the best foot forward as a band right now. We're all very, very motivated. We're writing the best music that we've ever written right now, and we are super excited to get that out into the world. We have some new music videos coming out. We love to be at a show and see young queer people feeling empowered and dancing and coming out to the shows, dressing up, wearing a wig, it's fun, do whatever you want to do at a Bev show, as long as it's consensual.

LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?

BEVERLY: I never thought that my music career would be at its height as a 41 year old, but I feel as though I'm just starting right now. I'm super excited to do new drag to evolve my looks. I'm excited to evolve the live show and play cities I've never played before, and get out into the world and see things that we've never seen. We're excited about touring with some new acts. We love supporting bigger bands on tour because it's a way to get in front of more people and get people to learn who we are. We're hoping to get on a few support tours next year.

We did an Audiotree Live, which is going to be coming out September 17. We have Edgewater Music Fest coming up on September 5, which is our next Chicago show. We have some stuff in the works for later this year and early next year that we're excited about, but we're really hunkering down and getting this new album made and start thinking about how to support that once it comes out.

As far as personally in the world, everything is scary and disappointing day after day when you read the news, but there has to be some sort of glimmer of hope within it, and if making music and doing drag and protesting is my glimmer of hope, then that's what it has to be right now. I'm going to fight for immigrants and women and queer people and a free Palestine for as long as we need to, because that's what's right and true in the world. I think that being able to be a glimmer of hope for other people is what we need right now. I am very scared about the future, but I also have to hold hope that it's going to turn around at some point.