Images: The Lillingtons, Squirtgun, Dan Vapid’s Riverdales and more May 19, 2015 at Backstage Bar

I’ve mentioned before that one benefit of living in Vegas is that we get cool one-off shows based around weddings. Last year it was Jeff Rosenstock and Hard Girls playing our 3 Year Bash while in town for a wedding and this year, we were treated to some pop punk royalty thanks to Lillington’s drummer Tim O’Hara’s impending nuptials with fiancé Lori (wife by the time this goes up – congrats you two!). On top of that, it was a nice way for me and my own spouse to spend our own wedding anniversary.

Grim Deeds, which features Lillingtons’ Kody Templeman dressed as a luchador, entertained a small crowd mostly made up of wedding guests and other band members with their silly costumes and fast punk rock as the first band of the night (their frontman was wearing what I assume the bride of Glen Danzig’s dream dress would look like).

After just two songs the band, who claimed to be from Norway, took time off for intermission, an intermission that saw another luchador fighter with tattoos highly reminiscent of O’Hara’s, challenge Templeman to a fight. If someone doesn’t get these guys a tour with The Mapes and The Maxies stat then someone is making a grave mistake.

Next up was feminist pop punk band The Lippies, and they put on a fantastic show. This was the first day of their first tour and if they were nervous they really didn’t let it show, and it takes guts to ask crowd made up mostly of drunken tourists and wedding guests to fall silent and then take a uke unplugged into the crowd like frontwoman Tonia Broucek did.

My favorite songs of theirs was one I believe is called “As We Fall,” which had an old Green Day vibe to it, and “Sidewalk Talk,” about the many men who has embarked on a self-imposed mission to ask women to smile for them  (seriously other dudes, cut this out). The band played with a lot of heart and I hope they make it back this way on tour number 2.

Mercy Music was the lone local on the bill and was a great fit, as tracks like pop punk gem “Your Life Sentence” are totally pulling from that same Ramones-meets-vintage-Lookout! Records sound that so many of the night’s touring bands draw from (or helped create).

This was the band’s first show with Micah Malcolm of The Quitters/Illicitor/New Cold War behind the kit, and with only one practice session under his belt he did a fantastic job, even providing a nice little solo in “Painless.” It felt like “Fine” and “Undone” were played just a little bit faster and I’ve got to say, I like them even more that way. Malcolm will be at least sticking around through the rest of Punk Rock Bowling weekend, so if you have the chance to see this iteration of the band, don’t hesitate.

While the night belonged to The Lillingtons, I was a just a hair more excited to see Riverdales, or at least, Riverdales’ Dan Vapid backed by ¾ of The Lillingtons. Vapid and crew sounded fantastic and easily had Backstage Bar at its fullest and sweatiest as they played through “Judy Go Home,” “Heart Out Of Season” and “Homesick.”

I desperately wanted to hear the band’s contribution to the Angus soundtrack, so when they played “Back to You” I pretty much lost my mind. But it was “Riverdale Stomp” that had the most fists in the air, the biggest pit, and the most people singing along, maybe because that song is just too awesome.

Vapid is a master of pop punk and a true disciple of Joey Ramone and, since the show fell on Mr. Ramones’ birthday, he brought out Teenage Bottlerocket’s Ray Carlisle for a sweet cover of “She’s The One,” the perfect song to dedicate to the about-to-be-married couple and the perfect band to cover on a night of Ramonescore pop punk.

While The Lillington members took some well-deserved rest after powering through such an awesome set, Indiana pop punk band Squirtgun took the stage to a slightly less filled room than Vapid had. Fewer bodies, there was still a pit and people singing along with “Long So Long” and “Burn for You.”

The band said this was their first show on the road with this lineup in over a decade and they didn’t have much time to practice, but they sounded as good as they ever have, especially on set-highlight “Social,” the song that turned many of us on to the band in the first place thanks to its inclusion on the soundtrack to the Kevin Smith film “Mallrats.” Did you miss their set or want to relive the fun?  Head out to the Beauty Bar on Thursday for more Squirtgun.

After midnight, the lights began flashing, signifying it was time for The Lillingtons to come out and perfectly conveying the sense of paranoia that is an undercurrent of many of the band’s best songs.

My back and feet were beyond sore because, let’s face it, 6 bands on a Tuesday night show is rough, but the pain was easy to ignore once they launched into “War of the Worlds,” the opener to the band’s Death By Television album. Pain is meaningless when you’re shouting “War of the Worlds, We’re all gonna die” with a bar packed with fellow pop punk fans.

For the most part, it was tracks from this album that elicited the largest crowd response, with everyone striving to sing closest to the stage during “I Need Some Brain Damage,” “Codename: Peabrain” and “Black Hole In My Mind.” The latter also saw Broucek from The Lippies come back out for a little crowd surfing over the circle pit.

The band sounded just tight as they did while backing Vapid, though they did have to turn down some requests for deep cuts, as they admitted that they barely knew how to play the songs on their setlist.

The band’s set felt like it went by way too fast, but they ended it in the best way possible when the band tossed a microphone in the crowd for help on their signature song and a contender for best of the Ramonescore sound – “Lillington High.” Thankfully the banner in the back, and Tim’s drums spelled out “Lillingtons” so that the tired and inebriated could accurately sing along to the rambunctious track.

The night proved that you don’t need a tommy gun to defend pop punk, just a love of the Ramones, knowledge of a few chords, and a sweet, sweet hook. Congrats, Tim and Lori! Here’s hoping for many years of happiness and also many years of putting on wedding anniversary gigs in Vegas that are just this good.

-Emily Matview

Photos by Aaron Mattern | https://www.flickr.com/photos/akmofoto/