B-Side Guys

High school touchstones rarely receive the lysergic recalibration they deserve. Philadelphia’s Jane Bonis corrects this oversight with “Prom Night,” a December 2024 release that reimagines adolescent ceremony through a haze of trip-hop beats and queer desire.

Bonis, a fixture in Philadelphia’s underground scene since 2020, collaborates with producer Aaron Sternick to create a deliberate tension between the song’s dreamy atmosphere and its subversive perspective. The production blends bedroom pop intimacy with trip-hop’s spacious percussion, creating an altered state that perfectly complements the track’s psychedelic narrative lens.

What makes “Prom Night” particularly compelling is how it transmutes cultural memory. When Bonis sings “Burned out, bright out/Soft mouth and long uncovered hair,” she establishes sensory details that hover between recollection and hallucination. The production underscores this ambiguity—reverb-drenched guitars and subdued synths blur the boundaries between remembered experience and chemical enhancement.

The chorus pivots toward euphoric declaration: “Technicolor, we’ll be young forever/We could make it if you love this love affair.” Here, Bonis captures both the fleeting immortality sensation of youth and the particular urgency of queer connection in heteronormative spaces. The altered consciousness becomes not just an escape but a lens that clarifies authentic desire.

Most striking is the track’s final verse, where Bonis deconstructs social performance: “You keep the compliments, I’ll keep the confidence/Talk is so cheap/Darling, give me something more.” This dismissal of empty praise in favor of substantive connection reflects both the psychedelic stripping away of social pretense and the queer experience of moving beyond prescribed scripts.

Musically, the arrangement employs a deliberate restraint that heightens tension. Drums stay just behind the beat, creating a suspended-in-time quality that mirrors the chemical alteration at the song’s center. Meanwhile, bass lines provide a sensual undercurrent that grounds the ethereal vocal delivery.

“Prom Night” ultimately succeeds by reclaiming a heteronormative ritual through both chemical and queer perspectives. Rather than rejecting the institution outright, Bonis infiltrates and transforms it, turning a traditional milestone into something far more interesting—exactly what Philadelphia’s underground scene has come to expect from this emerging voice.