Reggie’s has played host to a lot of good punk shows as of late and one that I was very excited to see happened last week. The legendary UK band, Amebix, reunited and came to Chicago for the first time ever only two plus decades after they broke up!

Tierra De Nadie

Tierra De Nadie

Tierra De Nadie

Tierra De Nadie started the evening off right with some pretty speedy hardcore. They sang all their songs in Spanish (at least that was how it sounded to me).  They had a lot of energy and a lot of aggression. Their songs were mostly pretty short and most stuck to the band’s formula. Many people in the crowd seemed to be digging them and I found them to be pretty enjoyable as well.

Nema

Nema

Nema

A pretty quick set change later, Nema took the stage. Apparently these guys hadn’t played a show in a very long time. I heard they were from the MI area in the 1990s. If I hadn’t been told all this information I would have thought they were a pretty new band that has been active for awhile because they showed no signs of rust. They had two singers who would scream and howl like banshees over their spastic punk/metal hybrid. I thought they had some pretty good songs but many started to sound the same until near the end of their set when some of the songs had some cool tempo changes. I could see they had the building blocks to be something pretty damn cool, it’s a shame they didn’t really stick to it and they stopped playing ago. I guess for the time period they were active the band was ahead of the curve.

Victims

Victims

Victims

Next up was a band from Sweden named Victims. I was a bit confused to their choice of band names since there has been at least two other punk bands with that same name over the years. I was all set to just dismiss them for their lack of google ability when the band took the stage and started playing. They had such power and intensity that I completley forgot my disdain for their name recycling and I was pretty captivated by how great they were. Their songs were kind of on the short side and were just these perfect pieces of intensity. The crowd were way into them and people started bumping into me like crazy which made shooting start to get difficult. If I had cash on me I would have bought everything this band was selling because they were that good and I vow to go see them play again the next time they come through town. What a pleasant surprise!

Amebix

Amebix

After some setup and sound checking, Amebix took the stage to a club that had filled up quite full by this point. I saw people of all ages in the crowd but it was definitely skewed much more toward the younger side of things which I found to be quite interesting considering how long ago it had been since the band called it quits. They were very eager to have the band start playing as was I and we soon got our wishes.

Amebix

Amebix

The band opened with “Winter” and the crowd went apeshit. There were kids bouncing all over the place, raising fists and singing along to the chorus. The band sounded amazing and the sound in the club sounded far better than it’s usual already high standards. I stood there in awe of this mystical band on stage playing and sounding like they not only quit but also have not aged one bit. Their choice of songs seemed to be real crowd pleasers too as it seemed they knew every song and got more excited as each one started.

Amebix

Amebix

They did a good job grouping together the more thrashier sounding numbers with the longer, slower and heavier songs and when they started playing “I.C.B.M” I nearly shit myself because that is my aboslute favorite Amebix song and seeing them play it live was one of those magical musical moments that you can only experience and never accurately describe.

Amebix

Amebix

Hearing these songs live brought out something in them that the band was never quite able to capture on their records. I could hear just how and why the band is so revered and considered so influential. In fact I really hope they recorded some of the shows from this tour and will release a live album because it would really further cement the band’s legacy in musical history. This show far exceeded my expectations and I wish they would come back and do it one more time!

It was an old school punk weekend last week as I went to two shows in two nights. Saturday night I went over to Reggie’s to see two more old(er) Chicago punk rock bands: The Effigies and Life Sentence. Originally The Freeze were supposed to headline this show but sadly they canceled their tour which means I have no idea if I’ll ever get to see them play. It also made the sting of choosing this show over seeing Wolves in the Throne Room play the same night hurt a little more. Ah well, the curiosity of seeing Eric B’s new version of Life Sentence was enough to warrant the choice in shows this evening.

M.O.T.O.

M.O.T.O.

M.O.T.O.

This show started really early and due to being sidetracked by skating, I completely missed the first band and arrived in the middle of the M.O.T.O.’s set.  I’ve seen them play quite a few times so I knew exactly what to expect which is short and catchy garagey punk songs. They really have a knack for writing catchy songs and are always enjoyable to see play live. I felt bad for them since when I arrived they were playing to a pretty empty club. I’m guessing the nice weather and early start time kept the people away.

Life Sentence

Life Sentence

Life Sentence

Next up was Life Sentence. I caught a glimpse of Eric B as he said hello to me as I was walking in the club and I have to say that he looks like he lived every story you heard about him. Had it not been for seeing a fairly recent photo of him on myspace I wouldn’t have recognized him at all.  He looks like he had a lot of hard years on the street and he was even sporting a black eye.  On stage with him was a collection of musicians who as far as I know hadn’t done time in Life Sentence at all in the old days pre or post lawsuit.

Life Sentence

Life Sentence

Life Sentence

The crowd had only increased in size a little bit since I arrived which I found odd. I thought for sure the curiosity factor of seeing Life Sentence would have brought a whole bunch of people out to the club.  The band tried to stall as much as possible before starting their set but then they had no choice but to go on. Eric immediately demanded that everyone come up in front and made some other small talk and then the band finally started playing. I didn’t recognize the song they opened with but it sounded a lot better than I feared. A couple songs later and I recognized my favorite Life Sentence song, “Problems”. In between songs Eric was constantly telling the crowd to dance, move, have fun and that it really didn’t matter because they already had their money. He also was constantly using the term, “nigga please” which I wasn’t much of a fan of.

Life Sentence

Life Sentence

Life Sentence

Musically the band were pretty good and it was obvious they practiced a bit before this show as they did a good job performing the songs. I couldn’t help but feel while watching Eric that I was watching the punk rock version of “The Wrestler” and it made me a little sad. Eric was very much like the punk rock Randy “The Ram” who was up on that stage playing these old songs after living a hard life because that’s all he has. I was looking at him trying to picture the guy I saw in that same position 22 years ago when I last saw them play and every once in awhile I caught a glimpse of him but overall the experience left me with a strange uneasy feeling.

The Effigies set up their equipment and then some strange young fellow got up on stage and sat down and attempted to entertain the crowd with some really bad “comedy” and equally bad songs. At least I think he was trying to be funny but it failed miserably and I was surprised no one in the crowd actually left during this aural assault. During his second attempt at a “song” Paul from The Effigies tapped him on the shoulder and had him stop and leave the stage as the band picked up their equipment to finally start playing.

The Effigies

The Effigies

The Effigies

The Effigies

The Effigies finally started playing and I forget what song they started with, but whichever one it was sounded as good as always and made for a strong start. The band played their usual set of older material and stuff from their last album, but this time they mixed in a couple of new songs too! The new songs sounded excellent and leaves me hopeful that they’ll record another record sometime before the end of the decade. The crowd in attendance seemed to be enjoying themselves, especially Eric from Life Sentence who was front and center the entire time singing along to the old songs and enjoying the new ones too. The band played a strong set that ended with “Body Bag” and then came out for a couple song encore as well.

flu.ID – Iots CD
Exile on Mainstream Records

flu.ID were an experimental hardcore band from Germany who seems to have disbanded shortly after this release. This CD contains all the songs from their previous two 10″ vinyl releases that are long out of print. The songs have been remixed and expanded upon to create a full album and almost become a whole new piece of work.

The music is mostly chaotic hardcore with lots of repetition. They will also branch off into some experimental stuff too that sort of reminds me of The Locust or Racebannon but those elements are attached to a foundation of pretty recognizable metallic thrash. The blend of styles really helps keep them from sounding like every other metallic hardcore band around. The vocals are screamed and brutal and angry just as they should be and the music is very thick and packs a lot of punch. It’s really a shame they didn’t stick around longer as this CD really shows a lot of promise. I guess it’s better to go out on a high note than stick around too long but it seems these guys may not have stuck around long enough as I bet another release would have been even better. Fans of this style of music would definitely find this disc worth seeking out.

Vöetsek – Infernal Command CD
Self Made God  Records

Despite their band name making me think they are some sort of old Finnish hardcore band, Vöetsek hail from San Francisco, CA and have been around for five years. The band has had a handful of releases but this is only their second full length album. Though I’ve seen the name mentioned in the past, this is my first time hearing the band’s music.

Vöetsek take the thrashy sound of bands like Spazz and they metal it up a bit with that late 80’s crossover sound. The vocals shriek and scream and are largely unintelligible. Despite the metal stylings of the guitar work at times, the songs rarely even hit the two minute mark. Vöetsek’s songs are really short, really fast, and really hard. They never slow down for more than a few seconds or seem to stray from their formula which results in many of the songs sounding similar and the album comes off at 17 short intense rapid fire attacks. I found it interesting in short doses (and their songs are short so it makes sense) but think this is the kind of band that was designed for 7″ vinyl releases where you get a bite sized dose that fills you up just fine. I do like how they incorporated the metal style into their thrash without making them sound like a full on metal band, I just wish they’d have provided a bit more variety among the songs.

Related links:

Vöetsek on myspace

Self Made God Records

Rudimentary Peni – No More Pain CD
Southern Records

When I was a young punker in the 1980s, I stuck mostly to the North American punk rock and never got super heavy into the British stuff with few exceptions. I remember all the “Crass punks” as I called them also seemed to be into Rudimentary Peni, due in no small part to Crass releasing at least one of the band’s records on their label. I picked up a couple of their records out of curiosity and thought they were pretty good, but didn’t really know much about the band at all.

The one thing I did find interesting over all these years was that the band seems to be in their own little bubble and seemed to avoid every musical trend in the past quarter century of their existence. They miraculously made it through the “metal years” without succumbing to it at all and just kept plugging away sticking with a sound that has worked for them since the beginning. While it could be argued that by doing so they sort of flew more under the radar than they should have, the result is that in 25+ years, the band never sucked, and you can count on their records to deliver what you expect from them.

No More Pain delivers 9 songs of ‘77 style British punk rock that sounds exactly how it should and is delivered in two minute or less bite sized chunks. The songs range from mid to fast tempo and have all the punch and energy as their early material, old age hasn’t tamed these guys any. The tenth and final song is an instrumental song which is a cover of a classical music piece from 1680, but obviously done with guitars in the Rudimentary Peni style of sound.

One other thing that stayed consistent was the band’s use of Nick Blinko who has done all the band’s artwork since the start. Included with the CD is a small poster of additional artwork. It’s nice to see that a quarter century later, a band from the old days can still put out enjoyable records without sounding like they are covering themselves. Sometimes change is not for the better, and Rudimentary Peni is living proof of that theory.

Riot Fest continued as my blood sugar level and energy started dropping. I went to the catering room backstage for a quick sugar fix, stepped out the side door to make a quick phone call and then got back to work.

Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Mighty Mighty Bosstones

The next band was one that a lot of people in the audience were there to see. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I was not one of them however as I’ve never understood the appeal. About 100 people came out on stage dressed in suits and picked up a variety of instruments, including horns. There was one guy on stage whose sole job it was to dance around. He didn’t hold still for more than about 2 seconds at a time. The band plowed through what I imagine were all their “hits” though I didn’t recognize all but one of them. The crowd was the biggest in size that I’d see all day and they were all having a great time watching and dancing and singing along. It was nice to see a lot of happy faces in the crowd even if I didn’t understand how that was the band that did it for them. Despite not liking their music at least the band were entertaining to watch, they are good showmen, I’ll give them that.

Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard was next. I know lately he’s put out a bunch of records and people seem to dig him, but until this show I never heard his stuff before so I was curious to see what the hype was about. All I can say is holy shit, I think I get it! Fast melodic punk with a bit of a lo-fi edge to it. It reminded me like a faster Ramones with more punch. I am making a vow right now to pick up a couple of his records and I’d love to see him play again sometime for sure.

Big Drill Car

Big Drill Car

Big Drill Car

Big Drill Car were a band I remember being around and hearing a couple of records by but never really paying much attention to. I wasn’t even aware that they either stopped playing or got back together for this show. When they started playing their sound seemed a little familiar to me. By about the third song they really seemed to take it to the next level and something about them just clicked with me and I was really enjoying them. When they were done I felt bad for not giving their records a listen more (or even keeping any of the ones that were sent to me in the old fanzine days) and now I’d like to revisit them. They weren’t an obvious choice to me except for their association with All, but when they were done, I was really glad they were part of this show as they ended up being one of the highlights.

Leftover Crack

Leftover Crack

Leftover Crack soon followed. I’ve seen them play once before and they are another band that I never understood the appeal. The kids really seem to love them and they are an energetic band, but ska punk is pretty much my least favorite style of music. For whatever reason, Security decided to kick out all the photographers after three songs which is the only time the entire day they did that so as a result I only got a few usuable photos of these guys.

The Casualties

The Casualties

The Casualties

The Casualties took awhile to set up but once they started they came out with all guns blazing. They played last year’s Riot Fest as well and this year I think they sounded a lot better. They really don’t let up and they have a very old school sound to them which I liked. Aside from their soiling of a Ramones song to close their set with (which I think they also did last year), I really enjoyed them this time out. The crowd did as well, the kids were flying all over the place.

All

All (and Lew singing along!)

All (the mighty Bill Stevenson)

All

This just left All, who took their sweet time setting up and got off to a late start. In the past I saw All twice, once was their very first tour with Dave Smalley as their singer, and once a couple of years later when they changed singers. I don’t recall the other singer’s name as I stopped following All after the first couple of records. They were one of the bands that I just let slip through the cracks for no reason other than I just was lazy about keeping track of them back then. They too had a sizeable crowd eating up their every song. I have to say that I only recognized a few of the songs, along with a Descendents song which drove the crowd crazy, but every song I heard sounded really good and you’d think they never took any kind of break from playing as every song was tight and sounded excellent.

All

All

I was so wiped out from being in the middle of work crunch and not sleeping much that I didn’t have the engergy to stay until the end of All’s set. I guiltily slipped out of the venue about half way through their set. I was told that a few songs shy of completion, the club pulled the plug because the show ran late and the crowd were pissed off, and rightfully so. I also learned this was all the venue’s doing and was in no way the fault of the Riot Fest staff. It sucks that such a good performance was cut short.

Riot Fest 2008 was a more diverse show this year and I think that worked to their favor. Despite my being worn out before I got there, the show lifted my spirits and I had a great time and so did everyone I talked to in attendence. The show is becoming an institution here in Chicago and I’m glad to see it continuing as it really is one of the highlights of every year, and one of the only things that makes the bringing of the cold weather tolerable!