No Use For A Name, Pulley, One Man Army, & HBA

I walked in as HBA was playing…and then I walked back out. When I heard the crowd yelling I found my way back in and settled to watch One Man Army. Now, to tell you the truth I went to this show to see One Man Army, an old favorite I used to see in San Francisco all the time, just a good ol' punk rock band. Being the crowd pleasers they are, "how the fuck are you Chico?" is all they needed to make the crowd go crazy. The antics continued, "hey, look I'm drinking beer in Chico guys, find anything odd about that?" With the mohawked guitarist responding, "Yeah, we're not at a frat party and we're not frat guys." Then the music began, a mix between Rancid and the Swingin' Utters. With that British accent / San Francisco style no one could help but have a smile on their face the whole set. You couldn't understand a word they were saying, but the music kept a pretty good beat nevertheless. After the drummer threatened to quit, they ended their set with the title track off their latest album, "Last Word Spoken."

Pulley was on third and, having such an extensive punk rock background, with members from Ten Foot Pole, Scared Straight, Face to Face and even losing a member to No Use For a Name, you'd think the guys could put on a damn good show. In true So-Cal style they wasted no time in getting right into the punk rock. The crowd seemed to be having fun, and I even saw some guys upstairs singing along. The band sounded exactly like they do on CD, the vocals were very clear and cheerful even though Scott, the vocalist (and former LA Dodger) seemed to have his game face on the whole time never cracking a smile. They picked about two songs from each of their albums and ended it with an invitation for everybody to come watch them kick HBA's butt in the park across the street.

The highly anticipated No Use For A Name came on next and the dance floor filled up, soon to be pushed back by a mosh pit that seemed never ending. No Use are definitely not eye candy, a very un-stylish band if you will. Sporting old T-shirts, basketball jerseys and jeans, they must all be married or just not looking. Though that doesn't make you turn your head from them, for some reason they manage to keep your attention. Maybe its those old favorites they stick in their set or maybe its just fun to watch them having the time of their life, either way they still got it (whatever it is). The band was all over the place, jumping up and down, running around, anything but to stay still all while managing to keep that consistent sweet harmonizing NUFAN sound. Playing just about every No Use song I could think of, the set was a long one including an encore the crowd begged and pleaded for. Fat Wreck Chords rocked the house and by the end of the night I was all punk rocked out.

- Carlynne Bradley

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