Citizen Fish, P.A.W.N.S. & Face Down

The kids in Face Down are young. When they finally started to play, after much confusion and dilly-dallying, they proved that they were punk beyond their years. Tight guitar work, although certainly not that inventive, as well as a solid bass player on the right, gave these guys some serious potential. They also brought along a whole cheering crew with sloppily hewn-together cardboard signs that said things like, "Mat sits down to pee," which gave them an air of mystery. What kind of publicity is that? Sure, it's some kind of funny joke, but really, what self-respecting punker hasn't been so drunk before that he had to sit down to pee?
Next up, Chico's very own punk-as-all-hell P.A.W.N.S. graced the stage and played to a gracious hometown crowd. The Epicenter wasn't even nearly half full, but the mosh pit was circling nicely (Have you ever noticed that mosh pits always go counter-clockwise? Why is that?). The singer, St. Anne, was a goddess that seemed to be singing just for me. I liked how they mix up the cadence and tempos of their songs and with a female vocalist they bring a more melodic feel to the stage. They played one song they referred to as a Hungarian folk anthem, and in another, St. Anne whipped out a kazoo and hammed it up with much aplomb. Thoroughly impressed with this, my first experience with the P.A.W.N.S., I would definitely make it a point to see them again in the future.
The main event, Citizen Fish, got rolling a short while later. When they finally took the stage I was a little stunned to actually see what Dick, the lead singer, looked like. Before the show I saw the guy walking around the venue, but I assumed he was a merch guy or maybe a roadie, being that he looked sort of timid and quiet. With skinny, round glasses and a posture more often relegated to college professors, the guy sort of looked like my old boss, Pete, from the Bagel Store — not quite the stature one would use to describe a punk rocker like this fellow Dick from Citizen Fish and the SubHuMans before that. But when he took the stage he was transformed into a flailing, pacing, head banging, lunatic. Screaming the lyrics to songs off their latest album, Life Size, Dick and the Fish laid it out thick and chunky, just like he'd promised when I spoke to him on the phone a few weeks back. Their sound is not too ska, but enough for them not to be just hardcore. Songs like "Will Swap," "Choice of Viewing" and "Shrink the Distance" showcased them as not your typical punk band of late. They wear their political views on their sleeves. One can also see evidence of it at their merch booth, which was stacked with books and pamphlets from the likes of Noam Chomsky and other leftist thinkers. They mean to affect change and when given the chance to play for an all-ages crowd like this one at the Epicenter, they used their pulpit quite effectively.
– M. Cameron Newell

Bookmark:

Comments down for maintenance.