2008 Woodie Awards
No go for a punk show; rock on a dead night
Whitney Hamrick
Issue date: 8/29/08 Section: Variety
"Thanks for coming out, it's nice to see such a huge crowd," said Heidi Kneisl, bassist of Apocalypse-A-Go-Go to the relatively vacant room at BackBooth for a night of $6 local punk rock on Tuesday.
"Leave your house, leave your apartment, get off myspace, away from the television and come see a show and support local music," A-Go-Go drummer Chris Welty said.
Awesome and the Ass Kickers, LARF and Government Flu, a Dead Kennedys cover band from Ft. Lauderdale, played on.
Kneisl belted out A-Go-Go's cust punk lyrics of biting wit, nihilism and social mocking in a helium timbre similar to Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs like a friendly squeaky demon with pigtails directing you to hell.
"To me Apocalypse-A-Go-Go is all about the ultimate scary thing and making fun of that in a sense, which is a very a very punk thing to do," guitarist Reed Tyrek said.
Combating with the alternative range of Tyack created a yin and yang vocal harmony, dynamically opposed and balanced at the same time. Alvin Bauer played a bongo drum and Chris Welty played drums.
A great component of punk and alternative music is the tendency to whisper breathily before shrieking.
"We don't really throw ourselves into one genre," Kneisl said. "I guess we lean more toward punk, but it's about people coming to our shows and having a good time."
Tyack and Kneisl mocked what the crowd would say if there were one during their set.
"Wow! Apocalypse-A-Go-Go is [freaking] great," Kneisl said.
"How do they come up with it?" Tyack said.
"Such skill," Kneisl said.
"I feel great after a show, a blood pressure let down," said Tyack while garage pop punk Larf took the stage. "We just walked around outside. Nothing's going on, it's dead."
Bile, lead singer of Government Flu said the band started as 77 Swindle doing a few Dead Kennedys covers and fans told him he sounded exactly like Jello Biafra. The other bands jumped around and sang along to "Chemical Warfare," "Holiday in Cambodia," and "Police Truck," as Bile performed a near perfect mimic of Biafra's signature inflectional vocals. Regardless of whether Bile sounds like Biafra he says he's not a political guy.
"Leave your house, leave your apartment, get off myspace, away from the television and come see a show and support local music," A-Go-Go drummer Chris Welty said.
Awesome and the Ass Kickers, LARF and Government Flu, a Dead Kennedys cover band from Ft. Lauderdale, played on.
Kneisl belted out A-Go-Go's cust punk lyrics of biting wit, nihilism and social mocking in a helium timbre similar to Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs like a friendly squeaky demon with pigtails directing you to hell.
"To me Apocalypse-A-Go-Go is all about the ultimate scary thing and making fun of that in a sense, which is a very a very punk thing to do," guitarist Reed Tyrek said.
Combating with the alternative range of Tyack created a yin and yang vocal harmony, dynamically opposed and balanced at the same time. Alvin Bauer played a bongo drum and Chris Welty played drums.
A great component of punk and alternative music is the tendency to whisper breathily before shrieking.
"We don't really throw ourselves into one genre," Kneisl said. "I guess we lean more toward punk, but it's about people coming to our shows and having a good time."
Tyack and Kneisl mocked what the crowd would say if there were one during their set.
"Wow! Apocalypse-A-Go-Go is [freaking] great," Kneisl said.
"How do they come up with it?" Tyack said.
"Such skill," Kneisl said.
"I feel great after a show, a blood pressure let down," said Tyack while garage pop punk Larf took the stage. "We just walked around outside. Nothing's going on, it's dead."
Bile, lead singer of Government Flu said the band started as 77 Swindle doing a few Dead Kennedys covers and fans told him he sounded exactly like Jello Biafra. The other bands jumped around and sang along to "Chemical Warfare," "Holiday in Cambodia," and "Police Truck," as Bile performed a near perfect mimic of Biafra's signature inflectional vocals. Regardless of whether Bile sounds like Biafra he says he's not a political guy.