Folk Punk Under the Stars
A packed house is what the Days N Daze show brought to the Trunk Space. There was a lot of excitement going into this show for multiple reasons, including Diego Galvan and Travis James releasing their split. I haven’t been in attendance at the current Trunk Space location when this packed since it opened. They hit capacity for the normal space, but would accommodate all that stuck around and came back with Days ‘n Daze in the quad. This was a crazy and exciting night of music.
Unfortunately because of the amount of people there, by the time I got in I managed to only catch two songs of Diego Galvan and band. The band was made up by his album split cohort, Travis James, and James, of Sad Kid, on drums. As expected, I’m going to gush about how they sounded awesome in these two songs because Diego does rock. I wish I was able to catch more pictures of him at this, but that will have to come from another show.
Following him was the full Travis James and the Acrimonious Assembly of Arsonists. I haven’t caught them since the old Trunk Space location, but no step has been lost here. The closest description I can give of the music would be a folk punk southern rock. Travis James reminds me a bit of a Jello Biafra in the vocals. He has great dark sense of humor that worked engaging the crowd. There is a lot to like from this band.
Up in the middle of the lineup was the first of the touring music, We the Heathens. They are more the anarchist folk punk similar to their tour mates, Days ‘n Daze. Setting the bands apart, this band’s songs felt a little slower paced. However, there was no lack of expression and energy from them as they played. Plus a cool standout is that they have a cello player, Amanda, in the mix of instruments. They are a perfect complement to their tour mates, and showed it tonight.
Because of limited time before music would have to be cut off for the night, Sad Kid ended up with a shorter than expected set. It didn’t kill the energy, as people were moshing and circling around their entire set like no other band that night.
Midway through Kyle fed the crowd pool noodles to only further the enjoyment of the crowd as they smacked each other. These guys love what they do on stage, and you can tell from how animated and into it they are during the performance. Sad Kid is a blast every time I see them.
Last up was the band, Days ‘n Daze, which more than capacity showed up to see. With an eleven o’clock cut off for music through the PA’s in the quad, they intentionally didn’t have a lot of dialog between songs. It meant just one fast paced folk punk song after another that audience just fed off of the nonstop energy. This crowd was singing along, eating up every lyric. People were crawling through legs, running around, and having a blast.
A cool thing about it being in the quad was the atmosphere, with the audience not only in front of them but around them. Plus being outside allowed to Geoff light up a cigarette as he played washtub bass. The set didn’t completely end once the PA was no longer available. Instead, Whitney, Jesse, Geoff, and Meg made their way out to the center of the audience to perform one more unplugged song. At the end of it, we found Geoff being crowd surfed away with a giant smile. What started off an overwhelming about people worried about getting in, turned into a fun night of music where most were able to see what they came out for.
