|
Ahhh
new bands. Tonight was the first chance I'd had to catch The
Suspenders, Bends newest "street" punk band. As always I went
into this with low expectations, figuring I'd see just another high school
punk rock oi band. They do have oi in their lyrics, but other than that I was
pretty impressed with their sound. For a newer band they sounded fairly tight.
Dispensing with the standardized 3 person group make up the Suspenders have a
guy on guitar, bass, and drums, and then two vocalists. Their timing was a bit
off on a couple of songs, but overall they were pretty good. I expect to see
more from these guys soon. After a huge break No
Cash Value finally got onstage. I've caught these guys alot, as they're
one of Bends better bands at the moment. As usual they did a great job. Their
sound is an almost funk influenced punk rock, with some ska bits. They sounded
great and even did a rocking cover of Crazy by the immortal Patsy Cline.
They played a really long set tonight, perhaps to stretch things out while
waiting for the headlining band to arrive. All
Out took the stage next. The last time I'd seen these guys I wasn't
too impressed by them when they opened for the Dead Kennedy's. This time was a
completely different story. They came out hard, fast, and didn't let up until
they left the stage. They're punk, and the crowd loved them. It's been awhile
since I've seen a crowd in Bend get that into a band. All Out did a superb
job. Paint By Numbers set up next, and I was surprised to see that no
one messed with sound during their entire set. Consequently their sound could
have been much, much better. Just a basic PA was available tonight, no board.
But I expected to see someone mess with the levels on it, even if it was just
a band member. Oh well. PBN played more melodic punk, and didn't seem
to let the bad sound or the lack of crowd interest stop them from putting on a
good show. I don't know whether the crowds disinterest was due to he fact that
All Out had whipped them into a frenzy and they were tired, or if many of the
attendees had left because it was past their bedtime. They played a more
melodic type of punk than the previous bands did, so I'm sure that's part of
it. At one point they decided to leave the stage entirely and just play on the
floor. I look forward to seeing them again with a better sound system. 800
Octane finally showed up and got their gear ready to go. This was their
second show in Bend this month, 9 days after their last one. As always they
kicked ass. They messed with the PA a bit, so their sound was much better than
the previous bands was. They played a wide variety of songs, from old stuff to
brand new tunes, and were really cool about letting fans pick out songs they
wanted to hear. (although it does make me chuckle when people yell out for
them to play songs that they already played once...) Again showing how much
they care about their fans Dave, the lead, let one kid play his bass for a
song. Way cool. Overall this show was pretty damn good. The sound problems
weren't that big a deal, the bands all sounded great, and everyone seemed to
have a good time.
