The morning of this
show, I had no idea who any of the bands on this bill were. I was guessing pop
punk or emo because Four Minute Mile is a Get Up Kids album and the other band
names seemed to fit that mold. I had heard of Trey The Ruler before because he
played here at The Dial awhile back with My Iron Lung, but I didn’t know what
his deal was and assumed it was post-emo stuff like Anthony Green or something.
I didn’t really have any expectations good or bad but thought I would mob out
to see my friends at the venue and check out some touring bands. It was a dead
night in town anyway.
Trey The Ruler opened
things up with an impassioned, if perhaps a tad melodramatic, spoken word set.
Initially I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy his performance because he seemed
to be explaining himself a bit too much and I tend to be a bit cynical when it
comes to emotional spoken word. But Trey had a very solid style about him and I
identified with the themes he was confronting; namely, difficulty in
interpreting and maintaining relationships and trying to hold onto ideals when
you are seeing the other people in your life giving those ideals up. His
delivery was almost like an alternative rapper ala Sage Francis or even
Atmosphere mixed with occasional outbursts of yelling that suggested a
background in the hardcore community. Although much of his subject matter is
broad, he approached his work with a clear integrity and conviction, remaining
engaging and interesting throughout his performance.
Almost immediately
after Trey finished his set of poetry, Streetlight Fire from Sacramento was on
their instruments conducting a sound-check. They had set up their equipment
before Trey’s set so they relieved the audience of my #1 pet peeve at shows:
long set-ups and take-downs. Streetlight Fire’s style is a very streamlined,
pop-oriented take on emo-punk that would feel right at home on recent Warped
Tour or Bamboozle lineups. The band that came to mind the most during their set
was Taking Back Sunday, particularly their first album, with the musical
emphasis on emotive quasi-breakdowns and dual-vocal interplay. The two singers
had pretty similar sounds so the trade-off during choruses sounded very
natural. There was even a few moments on their new track (“Redemption,” I
believe) that reminded me of the last few songs on The Smashing Pumpkins’ 2000
album “Machina” because of their overwhelming poppiness. Overall, this band
plays very well and seems to have a good chemistry, but they sound like so many
bands from the early to mid-2000s pop-emo movement (particularly Eastern
seaboard bands like Bayside, the aforementioned TBS, and Brand New - who they even covered) that it may be difficult for them to find a niche.
The next band, Zissou,
was playing one of their early shows from what I could tell because they have
no Internet presence as yet and Zach the Dial promoter confirmed as much. They
must have really set up extremely fast because Spencer Coltrane and I barely
had time to go back to my car and smoke before their set was over. We only
caught the end of their final song and my only comments would be that they
sound like Title Fight and it seemed like the singer guy had a good confidence
about him. I don’t think they even played for 15 minutes.
Next up was Spring
Break ’95, who - despite their name that would imply they’d fit right in with the
pop-punk/melodic hardcore bands just before them - play short powerviolence
songs much like ACxDC. In fact the reference to that particular band is important
because the guitarist was wearing one of their shirts and they play as a 3 piece:
guitar, vocals, drums. Just like ACxDC. As it is with most powerviolence acts, they
didn’t really do much for me whatsoever. It’s like right when these bands have
a cool part they decide to stop it, and those cool parts are often uber-generic
triad-based chug riffs that all sound exactly the same. That all being said,
they weren’t a shitty band for what they do or anything; if you like
powerviolence you’ll probably like these guys. We hung out briefly afterward and
smoked some ganja and they were really cool guys. This style just doesn’t do
anything for me.
The final band of the
night was Four Minute Mile, who I believe said they were from Washington state
along with Trey and had been on tour for a little bit. They played a pretty
standard type of pop punk with subtle core influences, much like A New Found
Glory or a toned-down Set Your Goals. Similar to Streetlight Fire, they relied
a lot on mid-tempo melodic breakdowns with anthemic lyrics, but in a more
classic pop-punk vein they also had plenty of speedy parts to bring back
memories of Fat Wreck Chords bands and the like. There wasn’t anything in
particular that stood out and kicked my ass during their set, but I enjoyed all
their songs and they all had a lot of good energy. The singer in particular
seemed ready to burst from excitement like all good pop-punk singers should be
On the whole, a fun
show with no scuffles or moments of dragging boredom; the fact that all the
bands set up quickly really made the difference, there have been shows in
recent weeks that seemed to take forever simply because people were lagging on
their equipment and that’s always a bummer. It wasn’t an earth-shattering show
that provided new revelations on life, but it gave a taste of 4 different sides
of the modern West Coast punk circuit without feeling elitist to or from any of them.
From Trey’s introspective musings to Spring Break ‘95’s blunt harshness to the saccharine
elation of the 2 pop punk bands, it was a night that didn’t have to stay on the
same vibe stylistically to keep everybody having a good time and generating a
comfortable communal feeling.
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