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Dirty Filthy Punk Fest Night One with
Sexual Tension, The Uppertanks, The Jeffs, Don Austin, Amps II Eleven, The
Chrome Kickers, and Femsick Liver
Annabell’s
05-09-03
Putting together a multi band show can be a difficult
task. Not enough variety and things can get boring. Too much variety and
you run the risk of turning off some members of the audience. It’s can also
be tough to get high caliber bands to take the very early or very late slots
because let’s face it; no one wants to go on before the crowd starts to
arrive or after they’ve begun to filter out. This was one of the rare
shows that managed to get it right. Every band I saw was good (my apologies
to Femsick Liver for not sticking around for their set, but I had to be up
early the next morning) and each represented a different subgenre of punk or
punk influenced music.
There were only a handful of people in the club when
Kent’s Sexual Tension played their set of groove oriented funk punk.
Nonetheless the band turned in a good set of catchy, quirky rock songs.
Despite the small crowd the band didn’t let it dampen their spirits too much
and their show was just as enjoyable as when I saw them perform before a
packed house at The Lime Spider a few months ago.
By the time The Uppertanks took the stage a few more
people had joined the party. The Cleveland band delivered an aggressive set
of eighties style beer fueled punk with snarling vocals and aggressive
drumming. They could stand to work on sounding a little tighter, but
overall I enjoyed their performance. For their last song they covered one
of Femsick Liver’s tunes, which I overheard members of FL saying sounded
just as bad as when they played it. High praise indeed.
The Jeffs from Columbus were up next, and they had sort
of a late seventies Brit punk vibe. If The Uppertanks snarled, then The
Jeffs sneered with the vocalist reminding me of Johnny Rotten at times. No
problems with tightness here, as the band sounded very well rehearsed.
Their freakishly tall vocalist Jeff #1 also had really good stage presence.
Good songs, too. Hey guys, send me a CD!
Veering a little bit in the metal/grindcore direction,
Akron’s Don Austin were the first band to get some serious pit action
going. They were probably the ugliest, fastest, most brutal sounding band
of the night but that’s not a bad thing in my book. Their vocalist sang in
a raw tortured scream but you could still make out most of the words and as
brutal as this band was their songs were not without their catchy moments.
I don’t know if I really consider Cleveland’s Amps II
Eleven punk, but I like ‘em. They’re more of a seventies hard rock band on
amphetamines and have a tendency to go off into very unpunklike jams and
solos. Still, their bludgeoning intensity and sheer volume went over well
with most of the crowd. As usual bassist Tony Erba baited the crowd with
smart ass comments between songs. The music may not have been 100% punk,
but the attitude certainly was.
The Chrome Kickers are a winning combination of old
school punk, a touch of metal, and good songwriting. They sounded tight as
hell as they tore through originals like “Arthur Noski”, “Funeral”, and “I
Smell Dead People”. As usual they also included a few covers including The
Pagans’ “What’s This Shit Called Love”. There were some technical problems
due to Amps II Eleven nearly blowing out the PA before them, but despite a
few pauses so the soundman could tweak the equipment they put on a killer
show. Their guitarist Curt was the mastermind behind this show, and he did
a hell of a job putting it together.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I
missed Femsick Liver’s take on Mentors style “rape rock”. The guys were
nice enough to give me a CD though, and from what I heard they play juvenile
and offensive rock that would make the late El Duce smile and give Gloria
Steinem a conniption fit. I think the guys would consider that a
compliment. (Bob Ignizio)
For pictures, click
here.
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