Images: A Wilhelm Scream, Heartsounds, Hard Pipe Hitters, Illicitor May 9, 2016 at the Beauty Bar

After doing what they’ve been doing for over a decade, I have to imagine A Wilhelm Scream is only getting by through living off of crowd energy, like some sort of melodic hardcore vampires. And they’ve got no shortage of life force, because how can you not be hyped when seeing this band live?

It also helps that the band set the wild tone for this Monday night show, matching their frantic energy on stage to the Barry Allen speed of their playing. But no one looked more stoked to be there than frontman Nuno Pereira. The camo-shorts wearing singer looked absolutely thrilled to be on stage, a best-day-of-his-life smile never leaving his face as he thrashed around, narrowly missing guitar necks while bouncing wildly.

The brief moments of standstill found Pereira at the edge of the Beauty Bar stage, mic pushed into the crowd so fans could sing along to AWS favorites like “I Wipe My Ass With Showbiz,” “Boat Builders,” “Famous Friends and Fashion Drunks,” and “The King is Dead.” Between songs, they put out passionate pleas for punk rock fans to show more respect to the women who attend shows and to also show respect to the people in the service industry who make shows like this happen.

To warm up the crowd, A Wilhelm Scream brought with them Heartsounds, one of the few punk rock bands around who have the guitar chops to match AWS. The melodic band kicked off their set with “Unconditional,” singer/guitarists Ben Murray and Laura Nichol sharing singing duties and also competing for who could shred the fastest (I’m going to call it a draw).

Heartsounds is one of my favorite – and one of the most underrated – bands of the last decade, so I was happy to see them playing to an infinitely larger audience than at a technically challenged indoor BB gig they played 6 years ago. And the group, who cited AWS as their favorite band, were also playing to a crowd much more receptive than the one at the Viva Ska Vegas kickoff show they played here a few years back. Given those tepid past receptions, it was nice to see a small pit erupt as the band played personal favorites like “Drifter” and “Until We Surrender.” Heartsounds deserves that kind of welcome.

The night kicked off with locals Hard Pipe Hitters and Illicitor. Like A Wilhelm Scream, Hard Pipe Hitters made sure to give shout outs to the staff working the show, dedicating “Drink Until We Die” to the folks slinging beers inside. The song’s blisteringly fast pace was perfect for getting the crowd moving outside. Illicitor was also successful in getting a fan twirling in the pit. I think it was the extremely tight musicianship on display that got the fan spinning, particularly the crazy bass licks coming from co-frontman Zabi Naqshband during “The Body & The Dirt.”

-Emily Matview

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