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The Vacancies, The Cheats, and Dropgun
Annabells
04-12-03
For those of you unfamiliar with Annabells, it’s one of
Akron’s best little rock clubs. Located on West Market Street about a block
down from The Highland Theatre, for years they’ve been booking all kinds of
rock shows. They aren’t much for promotion, but somehow the place is almost
always packed. That was certainly the case for this show sponsored by Pabst
Blue Ribbon and billed as ‘Filthy Punk Rock Night’. With no cover charge,
five dollar buckets of PBR, and three great bands I really had nothing to
complain about.
Dropgun kicked things off around 11pm. They were on
their home turf, and not surprisingly went over well with the crowd. I’m
still not familiar enough with their originals to give you a run down of
what was played (other than a cover of “Search and Destroy”), but these guys
definitely rocked. The bass player blew his amp out two songs into the set,
but another band’s bass player bravely donated his bass head so the show
could continue.
The Cheats from Pittsburgh were up next, playing a set
of ragged and raunchy rock ‘n’ roll that was reminiscent of The New Bomb
Turks. Although anyone who wasn’t right up front probably missed out (Annabells
doesn’t have a stage, bands just set up on the floor) the group’s vocalist
was quite the front man. Since I couldn’t give a rats ass about sports, I
have no reservations in recommending a band from Pittsburgh. Check ‘em out
at their website.
It was getting pretty late by the time The Vacancies
finally took the stage, but most of the crowd stuck around. They were
rewarded with another high energy set of quality rock ‘n’ roll that
stylistically was somewhere in the middle of the two bands that preceded
them. The Vacancies are no slouches in the performance department and moved
around as much as the limited space would allow. Again, hard to see if you
weren’t up front but even if you were just sitting at a table sipping your
beer they sounded great. All in all a great night of first rate rock ‘n’
roll. If you missed out, there’s another big punk show going on here May 9th
featuring The Chrome Kickers. (Bob Ignizio)
For pictures, click
here.
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