Concerts 

Making St. Patty’s Day Pink

One of the longer running punk bands in the valley are the Venomous Pinks. Over the last couple months the hard work they have been putting has been paying out dividends. They are now signed to a label, Squid Hat out of Vegas. They have an opening slot on the main stage of this year’s Punk Rock Bowling. Now the first fruits of labor under Squid Hat released with a great new EP titled “We Do It Better,” with two of the hardest songs I’ve heard from them titled “Pizza…

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Concerts 

Ruining… or Making Your Grandma’s Music Better?

Expressions are a great way to engage with an audience. The more animated on stage the more entertaining it can make a performance. Tonight felt like the culmination of a couple of the most expressive performers in our scene getting together. The first two are perfect compliments to each other too. Franks and Deans brought on top one of the most unique punk performances I have seen. The night opened up with the guys from Payson, Alex Squared. This fast paced group of punks right away showed their appreciation for…

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Concerts 

Celebrating St. Patty on the Ides of March

It is never too early to start drinking. That seems a good mantra to apply to any day, but, in addition, to starting to celebrate St. Patty’s Day. While two days off, it didn’t keep some of our best Celtic bands from putting together a show over at the Yucca Tap Room. I can say it was a lot of fun, and a little confusing to start off. The band that had me scratching my head a little was the Rugged Rogues. These guys certainly dressed the part with kilts…

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Concerts 

The Only Way to Celebrate Is With Hard Punk Rock

Passions are what make life worth it. Tonight was a night of two of my biggest passions happening nearly the same time, music and videogames. I love them so much that they are the two things tattooed on me. When I saw set times, I was like, this will perfectly work out. Of course, on punk rock time means there is going to be sets later than planned. That’s fine, because I actually had issues tearing myself away from watching Common Tongue’s set to pick up the Nintendo Switch. Before…

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Concerts 

Local Punks Having Fun

Sometimes things happen and plans change. Unfortunately for the show last night, our headliner had a band emergency and didn’t make it to 51 West. Hope things are better now and they can continue on the road. What did happen as result was an awesome local punk show with two bands I was catching for the first time and a surprise at the end. Up first were the Ass Wipe Junkies. They’d come recommended from a couple people, and I can see why. A mostly fast paced, punk rock set…

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Concerts 

Theatrics and Fun Times Ahead

I’m of two minds of set times being posted. First, and probably more unique to myself and a few others, having set times posted can help me figure out on busy nights like tonight a plan of attack to hit the music I want to see. However, I’m on the other mind where I’ve been at a show early with an amazing local band, and no one is there. This happens more often than I like to see, and if there is only a start time you get a couple…

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Concerts 

The Best Solution for a Rainy Night

Rain in this city usually does two things, show how bad our local driving etiquette and keep people indoors for the time water falls from the sky. It was the perfect time to have a punk show. Yucca played host to the Generators from California and the Tribulators making the trek up from Tucson plus our solid local bands. Right at the top of it was Reason Unknown. These political punks warmed up the crowd. Travis and Pat sing lead vocals dependent on the song. They contribute to the great…

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Concerts 

Bring An Open Mind

Always keep an open mind, as it will bring with it awesome things you would have never experienced. Tonight was a case of that, with a lot of people telling me how amazing A.F.I. can be live and that I must see them at least once. Like probably a lot of punk fans I know, I haven’t purchased an album from them since Sing the Sorrows. However, watching them perform tonight showed me what amazing musicians they are, including some of the newer stuff I was just hearing for the…

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Concerts 

The Perfect Example

People should be dancing and skanking at a ska show. This was not the case for the majority two nights ago, and it was frustrating. Tonight, people came to move, dance, and sing with the bands from start to finish. There was always at least one person dancing around to every band, and it was awesome. If there is an example of a great show with some amazing touring and local acts, this is a good model to look at. Opening up was our local ska band who has been…

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Concerts 

Devote Your Life, No Boundaries

I’ve been listening and watching Authority Zero for nearly two decades now. My first album was Patches in Time, but my sixteen year old self was catching them on the Ska Punk Show before that. I can recite almost all the lyrics to any album released before I became a slave to the GameStop corporate machine in 2006. After that, I got pulled out of the scene for a few years only to hit an occasional bigger show. Attention and time unfortunately eaten by the salaried job. Even so, I…

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