It’s dark, it’s cold, and my friends and I are following a couple of punks on bikes through a warehouse district trying to find this hole-in-the-wall place where two of my favorite bands are playing. It’s the last night of the Defiance, Ohio and This Bike Is A Pipebomb westcoast tour and I am TOTALLY stoked. Having missed the show the night before (which my friends tell me was the best they’d seen yet) I was a bit nervous that we’d never find the show. See, earlier in the day it turns out the place the show was originally going to happen shut down and they had to scramble for another venue. After about fifteen minutes or so of driving around, asking mechanics that spoke only Spanish for directions, and following kids on bikes we wind up outside of a small brick building with a few vans and a fist full of punks standing outside.

Fuck. Yeah.

Okay, I really have to make a few observations about this joint. I don’t know the name still, but it was probably one of the coolest spaces I’d ever been to a show at (and that’s saying something). It was basically the size of your grandpas garage with a back space two-thirds the size. And every inch of it was filled with random shit from motorcycles hanging from the ceiling, a polar bear hide on the wall next to a couch, butterfly benches, and a working washing machine and dryer set. It was a pretty rad anarcho-dig.

Only weird thing to me was the stage was about… oh, three inches off the ground. At best. But thank dog they had an AMAZING PA system, speakers stacked to the roof on either side of the place. For a small joint with a bizarre set up the sound was fucking amazing.

Speaking of…

First band goes on and nobody I was there with knew who in the hell they were, and with my extent of history as far as opening bands go I was expecting an okay performance at best. Fuck that, man. From the get go this band blew me away. After their set one of my friends asked what their name was, but because they’re in the middle of changing their name the only thing we got out of them was Can Of Beans. But shit man, these cats should have been headlining their own show.

And that was sort of the theme for the bands of the night. Every single one of these bands should have been headliners. They were all utterly amazing.

Vena Cava went on next, another band I had never heard of before. And again I was totally blown away. They had some driving shit that had me grooving the entire time. Also, their guitarist looks like a tall and skinny Gene Shallot (also, incidentally, like a former teacher of mine.)

Then came The Max Levine Ensemble who I’d been told several times that they were utterly insane. And holy crap man, were they ever. Everything was super quick, from the snappy drums to the machine gun lyrics. But what totally sold me on them was the way they seamlessly tied several songs together so you didn’t even realize what was going on until it was too late.

When This Bike Is A Pipebomb took the stage I found myself in the middle a southern dance party. The whole room was up and moving, it was impossible not to really with an ocean of bodies pushing you to and fro. And with good reason seeing how fun and positive the rocking was. The band tried their best to play mostly new songs, but there was no denying the joy that fell over the crowd when they powered into old favorites. Totally amazing performance.

Finally, after a few technical problems (ie: the sound guy disappearing into a void for a while) Defiance, Ohio took the stage. If I thought the This Bike crowd was pretty intense then the crowd for Defiance was the equivalent of mad monkeys. Usually I love being in the midst of the pit, but this night I was trying to keep to the side lines as best as I could ’cause it was just too much commotion. Bodies crowd surfing, thrusting their hands into the air, and singing along to a plethora of favorites. Not even a drunk girl causing drama could stop the rocking!

All in all the show was utterly amazing and memorable. I rate it a bushel of bananas.

But before I let you go, let me tell you about the important thing. The guys. Holy shit man, I was totally man-crushing the whole night. Usually I go to a smaller show and there’s a few hot scruffy guys there, usually can count ‘em on one hand though. But, man, dog bless folk punk boys. There was someone for every taste from the skinny vegan twink boys to the scruffy thicker men. One guy there had the best ass I’d ever seen in a pair of jeans, it was amazing.

And keeping in the tradition of using QueerPunks.com as my own personal missed-connections ad: There was one guy in particular I was totally digging that I kept bumping into that night, totally unintentionally. I’d be in the crowd and wind up next to him, move and somehow wind up next to him again. At one point? Literally power drove him into a couch by accident. I almost felt creepy. But damn man, what can I say? I love scruffy dudes with glasses.

…shit man, I need to get laid.

Moral of the story: The whole night was utterly amazing. Currently all of the bands are splitting as of today, the 8th, and touring in different locals. If you’re in Australia look for Defiance, Ohio to come to a town near you. This Bike Is A Pipebomb fans in the US keep an eye out for them as well.

Defiance, Ohio official page
This Bike Is A Pipebomb GhostMeat Records profile
Vena Cava myspace
The Max Lavine Ensemble official page

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