Dance Hall Crashers, Strung Out, No Motiv

I heard somewhere that taking a rose out of the rose garden is a thousand dollar fine. I wonder if the promoters at AS Presents warn the bands before they go frolicking through the garden to get on stage of such a fine. That would really suck if you stopped in some small town on a shoestring budget and you get a fat-ass fine for taking a rose. What would you tell your friends, or even worse, your tour manager? But then again, this was a punk show, and to my knowledge punks don’t like anything that is pretty, right?

First up on the bill was a band out of Oxnard that goes by the name No Motiv. Having heard of this band but never hearing their music I was surprised to see the audience respond to these guys by singing every song back at the lead singer. The band started off their set with "Celebrate," and that seemed to me to be the theme of the night because people were acting pretty silly and bouncing around through the opening band’s entire set. That’s cool, I am just glad that I have an excuse to stay away from that type of thing because I am a photographer. Oh, my lord, did I just say that?

Next out of the garden came a band that call themselves Strung Out. Five years ago when I was living in Austin, I had the pleasure of meeting these guys and actually helping them out when their tour bus broke down on the outskirts of Austin. When they did finally get to the club, as you can imagine, they were not too pleased. So me being the nice guy that I am, helped them load their gear onto the stage and for my efforts they gave me a t-shirt. Now, a couple of years later in San Francisco I see them again and thinking to myself since having met them in the past I should at least go say hello. Wrong idea. As I went to go say hello to their bassist Jim Cherry, he took one look at me and pretty much turned without saying one word and walked off with some punk rock skeezer clutched tightly around his heroin-riddled arm. Damn you, Jim, I was trying to impress my friends that happened to be watching with just how cool I am because I know so many rock stars, and you had to blow it. Anyway, I was pleased to find out that they gave him the boot and if you ask me they are so much better without him. Strung Out has what a lot of rock bands are in dire need of, and that is stage presence and an uncanny sense of making a complete ass of yourself with little regard.

The bands’ theatrics included hawking fat loogies into the air with little regard as to where it is gonna land, and even synchronized jumping during breaks in the song. It is a shame, however, that once Strung Out left the stage they took almost the entire crowd with them. All those kids didn’t even stay for the headliners, Dance Hall Crashers. Now, for this show I was really excited, because at a NoFx a few years ago I was given this cool compilation CD with an assortment of bands, but the highlight of the entire CD was this cool band, the Dance Hall Crashers. On the recordings I heard of theirs, there was a horn section, and to my surprise, they did not have any horns on stage with them. Nonetheless, the sounds emanating from the speakers were full, thanks to the tight bassist and guitarist holding some of the fattest grooves down while the two lead singers exchanged vocals and silly faces. The highlight of the show to me, was when the band played the Tom Petty classic, "American Girl." The two lead singers in the band were so gorgeous and also seemed to posses awesome stage presence and cool vocal harmonies. One of the singers was extremely energetic and kept cursing at the crowd because they were being too lazy. I was a little sad when the show ended but all in all I had a splendid time and went home a die hard Dance Hall Crashers fan.

Bookmark: