Tear Dungeon bring 'Squirm' and the gimp masks to Rubber Gloves

Austin's most theatrical punk band plays Denton's longtime DIY room on Friday, Nov. 20, for $10.

There are shows you watch and shows you survive, and Tear Dungeon only does the second kind. The Austin punk band announced on Nov. 2 that it will play Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio in Denton on Friday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 through Prekindle, and the room holds about 270. Stand near the front at your own risk.

Tear Dungeon play in gimp masks, and their sets are known for chaos, theatrical bloodshed and unpredictable destruction. Reviewers have called the sound noise-punk and thrash-punk, or, in one San Antonio Current preview, kickass garage punk paired with over-the-top theatrics. It's a band that treats a club show like a staged event, and a 270-person room puts you right in the middle of it.

They also come with a pedigree. The lineup, per their label bio, is Andrew Cashen on vocals, Johnny Dowey and Will Grover on guitars, Chris Prorock on drums and Jason Reece on bass, and the band includes members of Austin punk favorites A Giant Dog and Sweet Spirit. Their recorded history runs from the *Gory Hole* EP (2018, King Pizza) to the full-length *Carl* (2022, Feels So Good). Now there's *Squirm*, their new album on TODO Records. So this Denton stop is the first chance for a lot of North Texas fans to hear those songs at full volume. The band has been working the circuit, from a Sled Island booking this year to a KUTX Studio 1A session for "Kill for Health."

Gimp masks, fake blood and a $10 door in a room that has seen it all.

Then there's the room. Rubber Gloves started in 1997, when Jayson Wortham and Memory Ebeier opened it as a rehearsal space for local bands. It turned into a venue after the Argo closed that year. By KERA's account, the first show was a benefit featuring Denton's own the Sillies that June. For almost 20 years it was the all-ages room where much of the town's underground passed through, until it closed in May 2016. It came back with a two-day reopening in August 2019, and it's been a home for loud, strange, cheap shows ever since.

Tear Dungeon fit right in. A band built on spectacle and mess, in a room built by and for local bands, on a Friday for the price of a burrito plate: that's the Denton deal.

Some practical notes. It's an 8 p.m. start, so don't show up at 11 expecting to catch the end. Wear clothes you won't mind getting dirty; the fake blood isn't a metaphor. And with the room this small, a $10 ticket bought ahead of time is the smart move.

Come for the masks, stay for the noise, and tell your friends who missed it that they really should have been there.

Sources: TEAR DUNGEON (Big Hassle) (bighassle.com); Live music in San Antonio this week (San Antonio Current) (sacurrent.com); Tear Dungeon to Release SQUIRM via TODO Records (BroadwayWorld) (broadwayworld.com); Tear Dungeon (Sled Island 2026) (m.sledisland.com); Tear Dungeon - Kill for Health, live in Studio 1A (KUTX) (kutkutx.studio); Requiem for Rubber Gloves on the Eve of Its Final Shows (Dallas Observer) (dallasobserver.com); Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio (KERA Art&Seek) (artandseek.org); Rubber Gloves reopening (The Lasso) (twulasso.com); Prekindle tickets (prekindle.com)