The Arts Factory was home to punks and hipsters alike for the 4th Annual Summer Bummer. Into the Forest started out the show with a cacophonous sound featuring a violin, a washboard, a beer can, and the lead singer’s husky voice.
Next up came the CG’s, who have certainly cleaned up their act since I last saw them a few months ago. Their slightly sloppy sound is more instrumentally than vocally driven, but the band had audience members singing along.
Postcards played the type of music I associate with “garage band”- grungy yet light punk. The guitarist and bassist shared vocal duties. This Denver band was honestly not very impressive-looking, though their sound more than made up for it.
Previously called Marathon, Narrowed wasn’t dominated by vocals like so many bands are. While a bit heavy for my taste, their set was great and the crowd definitely enjoyed it.
Bogtrotter’s Union is one of my favorite local bands, and I’m certainly not alone. Their folksy punk always seems to be out of place until they actually begin playing, and you realize that the crowd is loving every second of their performance. Bogtrotter’s Union offered a refreshing break from the heavier, more classic punk, but wasn’t lacking in crowd participation – a circle pit formed and everyone joined in when singing the chorus “I’m an arrogant bastard, I’m a selfish prick, come friendly bartender, I don’t wanna hear your shit.”
Las Vegas punk band Happy Campers has been around since the 90s, and their sound definitely proved it. Even though they just seemed like a bunch of dads, they were punk rock dads with lots of energy and were obviously comfortable and experienced playing their set. The crowd was seemingly unfamiliar with them, which is odd, but most people were at least nodding along.
A few months ago, I downloaded the It’s a Ska World compilation, and Hooray For Our Side’s “Plastic Knives” quickly became one of my favorite songs. So I was looking forward to seeing the Orange County ska band. I was not disappointed – their performance was amazing, and there was plenty of energy in both the band and the crowd. They finished off their set fittingly with “Outatime,” off their new EP.
I’m not much for bands with vocalists that scream, but I do love Hard Pipe Hitters. They’re more hard punk than ska, but played a ska song and were still extremely popular with the crowd. They also played one of their most well known songs, “Chicken and Waffles.” The crowd was so into it that nobody seemed to mind when they ran a bit over their set time.
This was my first time seeing Be Like Max in a while, and I was anxious to see how the new guitarist would play. The new guy, Chris, seemed younger than me (17), and had big shoes to fill when Max left the band. Chris obviously knew what he was doing, and sang along to all of the songs as he played. Max made a surprise appearance, pumping up the crowd even more. Multiple people, including Max and Charley, crowd surfed, resulting in a few falls and bruises, but the audience was still as enthusiastic as ever.
-Julien Boulton (Be Like Max photo by Emily Matview from the Fat Wreck Tour)
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