T.S.O.L., One Man Army & The Briefs

First off, let me say that you cannot drink at an all ages show at The Brick Works anymore. Not that drinking is the most important part of a good show, but it is an important ingredient. Apparently some fool couldn’t hold his alcohol well enough and made an asshole of himself, making The Brick Works change the rules for all ages shows. Thanks buddy! That being said, I was at Panama’s for a lot of the first songs of the bands because you can’t hear the music when it starts. They need to get closed circuit TV in there if this is going to be policy so that people can see when the bands start.
The first band up was The Briefs out of Seattle. No grunge (is that shit still around?), just Ramones style punk rock. I mentioned to more than a few people that they seemed like they were the little brothers of old school punkers. These Washingtonians looked like So Cal boys, but they sure didn’t play like it. The small crowd that was actually at the show when The Briefs were playing seemed to dig ‘em; it’s just a shame that more people didn’t hear what they were playing. The set was short but sweet.
Next up was the band I think most people came to see. Even though they weren’t headlining, everyone was there for One Man Army. Even the Hit By A Semi guys were there, so you know it was a big deal. Since I just recently got into One Man Army (late bloomer), I don’t really know what their old songs were and which ones were new, but people were singing to all of them regardless. Super high-energy punk. Grinding guitars mixed with a steady and fast paced rhythm section. Most of the crowd was jumping into and onto each other for the entire set, which always makes for an entertaining time, but one thing I never understood was the mindset of some of the guys on the edge of the pit who get pissed off when someone smacks into them. If you don’t want to get hit, move. And don’t take shit so seriously. If you haven’t been turned on to One Man Army yet, guess what, you just were. Go buy an album.
I gotta admit I was real surprised to hear T.S.O.L. rock as hard as they did. I was expecting old men playing real bad renditions of their glory years. Nothing could have been further from the energy and emotion that I saw. They may have been older than most of the crowd, but T.S.O.L. had all the young guns jumping everywhere; hell, I saw a few of the older guys jumping around as well. They powered out song after song, pausing only to crack a joke with the audience and take requests. At one point the band didn’t know what else to play so some guy yelled out an old song and they went right into it. They played a pseudo-encore and then hit the road, leaving everybody wondering what they were going to do next. I went home to water my plants.
- Marcus Dorin
- Photos by Myles Stenger

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