Kansas City Blog

Openers Bent Left churned out your standard, Fat Wreck Chords-ready punk rock (think Good Riddance and Anti-Flag) but it was refreshing to see a Kansas City pop-punk band. Illinois' the Brokedowns continued with the run-of-the-mill punk rock shtick with a faux-hardcore edge (i.e. screaming over power chords and breakdowns). During their set it became apparent that kids in Lawrence were desperate for a punk rock show, and I watched one kid climb up on stage and think about stage diving into a crowd of maybe 20 people before climbing back off the stage. The Brokedowns spent a little too much time making goofy stage banter, though their theory that the band Kansas were the first Juggalos (given the large Juggalo population in the area) was perhaps not all together baseless.

Japanther calling

Japanther shook shit up, thank god. I'm not quite sure how it works, but a couple of dudes using nothing but bass guitar, drums, and cassette tapes managed to make some of the most innovative punk rock I've heard in a while.

Since 2007's Scuffed Up My Huffy, Japanther seems to have been on the cusp of breaking big, and somehow, even after last year's Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt, Japanther still operates under the radar. Maybe that's a good thing, though. They're the little band that could ... make a bunch of kids in some random town rock out to songs like "We Don't Give a Fuck What You Write on the Internet."

Overall, it was some of the most fun I've had at a show in a long time, and Japanther's energy and attitude is exactly what makes them an excellent punk band in the post-"punk is dead" era. (An impromptu Ramones cover and diatribes about Bad Brains didn't hurt, either).

Had Dillinger Four been playing anywhere besides the Granada, and I could have heard Eric Funk and Patrick Costello's vocals, their set would have been amazing. I've already stated that the sound was absolute shit and as much as I hate to blame the quality of a show on the sound, sometimes that's the way it is. And this is even more painful because the set-list was spectacular. I'd expected them to play stuff exclusively from their most recent LP Civil War and instead they played a discography-spanning set.

During "Noble Stabbings!!!" I instinctively threw myself into the pit and nearly had my glasses destroyed, and the same thing happened later when they broke into "Let Them Eat Thomas Paine." Had I been able to hear the songs I was trying to sing along to, this show might have been euphoric, but towards the end they were playing nothing but the jams, and the sing-along from the crowd was better than nothing.

They closed the set-proper with the much-hollered-for "Doublewhiskeycokenoice," which in turn made me regret not having one in my hand at that moment. Insult was added to injury when they encored with "O.K.F.M.D.O.A," THE song I had wanted to hear all night and the fantastic punk anthem (despite its goofy title) "D4 = Putting the F Back in Art."