P.A.W.N.S., Gruk, The Strange & Year of the Spider

It was a nicely hot evening at the D.I.Y.R.G., which describes both the bands and the heat. I'd like to call on the fans to brings fans, or if anyone knows where to giant exhaust fan for real cheap contact Zeke or Sean — they're going to need it this summer when the mercury is jumping to 105.
Two local and three Santa Cruz crews headed up this evening. The opener, Year of the Spider entertained with a heavy bass and grungic rumblings with excellent progression. Their guitarist held up some precision guitar work and I remember that their bassist played through a broken string, though no one would know without seeing it dangle.
The Strange coaxed the crowd closer, then began their rhythmic summoning of doom. They had a hard-hitting, metallic-quick reverberation with moody vocals reminiscent of Glenn Danzig. There were some interesting changes and some excitement was built up during their tune "Rough Ends."
Next up was Gruk from Redding. The crew appeared as an interesting juxtaposition, on bass a guy with spiked dreads, the drummer: the fifth Misfit, on guitar a goat-roping cowboy and center stage a dark-haired banshee, looking quite classic in a slinky black dress. Looks can be deceiving, as the musicians didn't seem to battle between western, reggae, and 1930s blues — they were straight-up punk rock. There was some good crowd activity responding to their rat-a-tat-tat beats and throbbing pulse.
Yes, Power and Wealth Needs Slaves — and Chico needs the P.A.W.N.S.! They have a real engaging sound that involves all who will listen to the passion they have for their music. An enthusiasm which quickly translated into a churning and burning circle. Ray DeHated delivered some powerful words: "Work, Toil, Labor, Sweat" from their "Assembly-Line Machine" and the beautiful Saint Ann led the crowd with theatrical execution of the lyrics. The P.A.W.N.S. will be playing next at the Libertatia punk festival June 13th-17th, for more info lookup www.danger-island.com/pyratepunx. It should be worth saving your beer money.

– Lars Logan

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