A Grand Ol’ Punk Show
This was a freaking fun night of music. The show was loaded to the brim with seven bands, four of our locals and three touring bands. We even saw No Gimmick spare no expense for the endeavor with a handmade banner. With that large line up came an early start to the show at 6:45.
The night led off with Krovak doing their more traditional set since Halloween. Leigh’s R2-D2 did make it out again onto one of the amps for the set. We even got reading material from Leigh and Mike, in the form of PBR cans, to sing along to their PBR song this night. These guys are great to watch and hope I will see more people out next time they play.
After that we were onto We Might Be Wasted, and Creepy Don’s hair wasn’t as crazy this set as the last time. I am learning I need to get better at learning more lyrics of them, along with other bands so I can sing along when beckoned. One of the best at that is the one on stage with the microphone. They ended on the somewhat usual tradition of dedicating “Fuck This Fake Scene” to those who weren’t there.
Then speaking of energy, more of it came in the form of Johnny and No Gimmick. That man may joke he is old, but he moves around that stage like he is still a teenager when he plays music. As I said before, they even invested in a homemade banner for this show with such details as a smiley face. I love every time I catch No Gimmick play.
Then the gauntlet that was cramming about ten songs into a short set time was next with Swapmeat. Ben, equipped with his usual bottle of beer, and the band took up the challenge. I was entertained by his ability to move around the stage while juggling that bottle and his microphone. They managed to play the entire set in their allotted slot too.
Up next was another awesome discovery of music for me, the Cryptics. These guys I probably should have heard of before, but tonight was my first listen. They are a high energy, almost in a Ten Foot Pole kind of sound. The Cryptics even pulled out a horn for a song too. This was a great discovery for me that resulted in a vinyl purchase of their latest album that I was spinning a couple times while I wrote this up.
Get Dead were the next awesome batch of music to hit. This night they were playing with three fill-ins, plus Sam and Mike. It didn’t make the set any less awesome to watch. Sam even touched on the A Fat Wreck story when they drugged Fat Mike, and still got signed to the label saying he didn’t do it followed up by “the man had it coming to him.” Just awesome to watch this set between that and the great music they play.
Last was one of my all-time favorite punk bands, Guttermouth. It’s been about a decade since the last time I’ve missed a Guttermouth show and they didn’t disappoint. It is just a matter of what songs and the comments that will come out of Mark’s mouth. Hell, they dumped a drink on one of the Cryptics before joining them for a song.
Then later Mark told a dude to be a decent human being for once in his life when a chick tried to stage dive that direction and the guy dropped her. In addition, Mark did stage dive himself into the crowd. The only downer of this set was that it was cut short by the all age’s curfew of Tempe. We still got a good hour long set though!
