Dum Dum Girls, Crocodiles
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Blue Lamp – Sacramento

Words & Photo Vincent Girimonte

Dum Dum Girls maestro Dee Dee stands tall over an attentive Blue Lamp crowd eager for the “buzz show of the summer” last Tuesday, hammering away on distortion and crooning about whatever people were crooning about in 1960s Western Europe–in the movies, that is.

Niche doesn’t begin to describe this band’s appeal; the Sub Pop girls in frayed lace, leggings, and sporting beautifully chopped bangs have that production-line mannequin sound that reeks of art-school irony, but continues to resonate nonetheless.

One can’t help but wonder what shape Dum Dum Girls, who headlined Brian McKenna’s bill after local act Chelsea Wolfe and San Diego’s Crocodiles, would have taken if Dee Dee’s original bedroom project were to explore something other than the four hot-chick dynamic, and whether it would have proven more interesting.

Last Tuesday’s Blue Lamp incarnation was scintillating for its lustiness–legs, thighs, lipstick; they all nailed it–and Sandra Vu beat on drums like some steamy Amazonian coxswain. The sound, however, while pulling heavily from ‘60s pop, also seemed to play on our current infatuation with the washed-out and feminine. Lines were sometimes blurred with Vivian Girls and former HoZac Record mates The Girls at Dawn–regardless of who was there first (and despite their leggings), Dum Dum Girls is drawing from a familiar well.

This gripe doesn’t necessarily speak to Dee Dee’s (aka Kristin Gundred) ability, however. She blew a few big notes in a sort of Pat Benatar homage, shimmying just a little to the rhythm with a menacing scowl. Her vocals meshed nicely atop the pervasive lo-fi guitars with bassist Bambi and fellow guitarist Jules, both statuesque in the literal sense, playing foils to Dee Dee’s subtle charm. In short, there was nothing wrong with the snappy set, but nothing terribly distinguishing about it either.

I Will Be, Dum Dum Girls’ 2010 release, was co-produced by Richard Gottehrer, a pop veteran who wrote such classics as “My Boyfriend’s Back” and “I Want Candy.” An old-school catchiness permeates through I Will Be, re-imagining and alluding to a time when crisp numbers reigned with Wall of Sound production. Not everyone was buying it at the Blue Lamp, though, or maybe we’ve just become tired of it for the second time around.

Patrons spilled out of the venue on Alhambra and N for fresh air between sets–Blue Lamp regulars claim it as Sacramento’s muggiest venue, which of course is amplified by June-coming-on-July heat. Ordinarily, such a spot deems tight leather jackets a nuisance not worth the classic motif, but strutting and strapped in to his Italian diaper was Crocodiles singer Brandon Welchez, quite committed to the whole “I’m fucking awesome” thing, propped up by the fact that he sounded pretty fucking awesome. New single “Sleep Forever” is a soaring hip-thruster, and tracks from their decidedly average 2009 Summer of Hate album seemed well suited for all 10 cubic feet (roughly) of the Blue Lamp. And even if you weren’t buying it, with the Crocs or the Dum Dums, you had to admit: they were selling it pretty hard.

Sacramento Punk Legends The Secretions Are Set to Release New Record

The year was 1991. The grunge movement, in all its flannel glory, had fully engulfed the country thanks to bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam; the Governator was just the Terminator in Terminator 2: Judgment Day; Will Smith was just the Fresh Prince in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; and two young punk rockers attending Sacramento State, Mickie Rat and Danny Secretion, would meet and form a band. “I would have to walk through the University Union and I would get my coffee and go to class and I would always see this guy wearing all black no matter how hot it was,” Danny recalls of Mickie Rat during a recent conversation outside Benny’s Bar and Grill. “Long-sleeve black shirt, black pants and motorcycle boots with these big metal plates on the front and he had kind of a Mohawk devil-lock. It was pretty awesome.”

Mickie was aware of his intimidating appearance and even admits that he was known as the “scary punk guy” around campus. The two would see each other often, but never really spoke until their paths crossed one afternoon under dreary circumstances. “We actually started talking at a funeral,” says Mickie, who at this point had already started a band. “Our original guitarist was the program director for the student-run radio and he passed away. I had seen [Danny] in the studio; we had shows near each other. We didn’t even really start talking until then,” says Mickie.

One thing led to another, Danny was invited to jam and The Secretions were born. “We still have cassette tapes of those practices and how we started every song with, ‘One, two, three, four!'” Danny says.”

The two recall that in those first days of practice, ending the songs in sync was not as easy as starting them. “Usually we would start out the song together but the ending would always end up disintegrating,” remembers Danny. “The guitar would stop, then the bass, then the drummer would just keep playing.”

Fast-forward 18 years and the two are still making punk rock music together. “We don’t know how to do anything else,” says Danny. “I think the thing that’s really helped attribute to us not throwing in the towel is coming to grips with the fact that we’re not going to be huge and famous.”

Money and fame aside, The Secretions are a very successful band. They’ve toured the country many times and released a handful of records, but more importantly, they’re great friends who love playing music together. “My goal was to always be in a band with friends,” says Mickie. “That’s pretty much what it’s always been about for me. I’ve been lucky enough to do that. I mean, some people are like, ‘Oh I’ll hire a bunch of guys to play my music.’ That’s never worked for me.”

What has worked for The Secretions for nearly two decades now is booking smart tours: Gigging every other month as opposed to every weekend to avoid over-saturating the market; recording and releasing high energy, addictive punk rock records; and connecting with their dedicated fans, appropriately dubbed Secretins, more deeply than most groups these days. The band—which currently consists of Mickie Rat (bass, vocals), Danny Secretion (drums, vocals) and Paul Filthy (guitar, vocals)—truly has withstood the test of time. With a new record, entitled GREASYHOTMEATCHEEZY, due out in July, a slew of tour dates including two appearances at the Insubordination Fest in Baltimore, Md. in late June, two Sacramento release shows (July 3 at the Blue Lamp and July 20 at the Boardwalk) and a two-week West Coast run with The Bugs, they are not showing any signs of slowing.

Where did the name GREASYHOTMEATCHEEZY come from?
Mickie Rat: Paul’s girlfriend.
Danny Secretion: We were driving to Fresno to play a show; it was like a Friday night so we had all just gotten off work, went home, cleaned up, drove around and picked up everyone. We pulled over to get some gas and something to eat and I just asked, “What do you guys feel like eating?” And she just blurted out, “Greasy, hot, meat, cheesy!” It was just one of those things. On the inside of our van there is just Sharpie tags all over and written up there is “GREASYHOTMEATCHEEZY” and we just circled it and were like, “That’s a great album.”
MR: It’s a running joke, somebody will say something disgusting and you’ll be like, “Oh that’s what our next album is going to be called.” She also kind of did that to goof on me because I’m a vegetarian and I’m allergic to dairy so she was like, “Hm, what are all the things you can’t eat?”
DS: Yeah, Mickie can’t eat too many things that are meaty or cheesy.
MR: But I like hot things and greasy things.

What else can you tell me about the record? How does it compare to past releases musically and lyrically?
DS: Musically I think it’s on par with everything else that we’ve done, it’s nothing too complicated.
MR: I think a lot of people are shocked because I’m more singing than yelling. There’s some different songs. Usually if I write a pop-y song that sounds kind of smoother and I sing kind of pretty on it, I’ll save it and not put it on the album. I’m getting to the age where you just stop giving a shit. A lot of those songs I didn’t want on the album, but then I was like, “Eh, what the fuck do I got to lose? Let’s just put them out there.” The opening track is like three-and-a-half minutes long, which is like the longest song I’ve ever written.

Yeah, that’s like three normal Secretions songs!
MR: Usually I write stuff that’s a minute-15, that’s like my average song length. I kind of wanted to write this rockin’ Joan Jett and the Blackhearts kind of song.
DS: It’s a fun song. That was the big risk that we took was putting a song that was so different from the others at the beginning.
MR: Yeah I really didn’t want to put it first either but eventually they convinced me.
DS: We were just like, “No, this one has to start it.” It’s one of those things where it’s going to make people listen to it. The next song is just classic punk all the way through.
MR: There’s some different kind of stuff on this one.
DS: It’s just a fun album. We’ve got the songs pretty much telling off certain people. That’s always been what we do, just kind of poking fun at people.
MR: It’s what we do best: pissed off punk rock.

You’re doing a listening party at Capitol Dawg. Whose idea was that?
DS: That was Mickie’s idea.
MR: It’s one of my favorite places to eat. I always hang out and talk to the owner. My girlfriend and I actually went there for the first couple of weeks and nagged the hell out of him to get garlic fries because he didn’t have them yet.

So I have you to thank for my stinky breath after I eat those, eh?
DS: The reason why he didn’t have them was really cool. He didn’t want to do garlic fries, because Jack’s next door had garlic fries and he didn’t want to disrespect them.
MR: But Jack’s has terrible fries, the only reason they are good is if they put garlic on them. A fry must stand alone, by itself, before you put anything on it. I am a total fry aficionado. If a fry doesn’t taste good with nothing on it then I don’t want to eat it.

You guys have a widely renown connection with your fans, a listening party seems like a good way to keep that strong. Have you done anything like this before?
DS: We did it last year at the Javalounge. I think prior to that it had been much more informal, maybe just inviting friends over to our house to get drunk and play our new CD. For Faster Than the Speed of Drunk we did something a little more formal, we had an actual listening party where we told everyone to come on over to the Javalounge and we played the CD. This year we thought about doing it again and Mickie had the idea of doing it at Capitol Dawg.
MR: We’re going to have a special hot dog recipe for the evening; it’s going to be the “Greasy, hot, meat, cheesy.” I somehow convinced the owner to do the 88-cent Pabst long necks for that night. He usually only does that on Mondays, but he’s agreed to extend it to a Thursday.
DS: Oh, that could be bad news for us!

What is this Insubordination Fest all about? Are you pumped to be a part of it?
DS: It’s a big festival, I think this is the third one; it’s basically Lookout Records mid-’90s: bands like the Mr. T Experience, The Queers and The Parasites. They just have this huge festival with all these pop-punk bands back East.
MR: It’s put on by Insubordination Records.
DS: This year the surviving members of The Dead Milkmen are going to reunite and play. Lots of other huge bands will be there. We play on the Friday night just as the Secretions. Then on Saturday we’re backing Wimpy Rutherford, who is the original singer for the Queers, so we’re going to be doing like all the old Queers songs.

That seems like kind of a big deal for you guys!
MR: It’s a huge deal.
DS: It was one of those things where I was talking to Wimpy about the possibility of him playing and us backing him up. I let the guys know, and Mickie didn’t want to get his hopes up.
MR: I was like, “I’m not going to hold my breath.”
DS: Then when we finally got the OK when Wimpy was given a slot and he said, “I want you to be my backing band, learn the songs,” then I let the guys know.

You guys recently did a video shoot for the song “Back in the Day Punk.” Will it include footage from your recent Club Retro show?
DS: Yes, we worked with our friend Rob Young, aka Rob Fatal. He’s a local DJ here in town. He’s an awesome filmmaker, and he’s absolutely punk rock. He’s very fast about how he films things; he’ll have you do everything about five times until he gets what he thinks is just right and then moves on to the next thing. We filmed the first part during the day at our friend Tom from the No-Goodniks’ house and that was a good time. Then we played at Club Retro later on that night and we played the song three or four times. And he just filmed the kids and filmed us. If you want to get people to really go crazy during your set, put a camera right in their faces. Everyone wanted to be on camera for that. We had a trampoline on-stage for people to jump out into the crowd.
MR: It was for stage diving assistance. In full disclosure, we stole the idea from Sloppy Seconds. It looked like fun.
DS: The first kid to do it was this kid named Tony Silva; he’s from Woodland, Calif. Mickie wrote a song about this kid because he’s from Woodland but he takes the bus, because he doesn’t have his drivers license yet, to Sacramento to go see punk shows. So all these kids complain about, “There’s nothing to do, this scene sucks.” And you got this kid taking the bus to pay a cover to go see a punk rock show.

What’s the song called that you wrote about him?
MR: It’s called “Tony Silva Rides the Bus.” It’s on our new record. He’s a really nice guy, but he’s kind of a klutz and always ends up hurting himself, you know the bad luck stuff always happens to him.
DS: Well, he was the first one to use the trampoline. I motioned to him with my head as I was playing the drums like, “Tony, go!” So he runs offstage full force, just jumps on the trampoline, soars into the air and the crowd parts like the Red Sea. He had gotten so far out he didn’t have the time to level out so he could land feet first, so he pretty much did a big elbow drop on the ground. It was captured on video by Rob and we’ll see if it makes it in the video or not.
MR: After our set he comes up to us and was like, “Yeah it kind of hurt, but I got right back up because I didn’t want anyone to think I was a pussy!”
DS: If anyone deserves a song, it’s Tony. I don’t know if we’re going to be bringing the trampoline to the Boardwalk though, because that’s a pretty tall stage.

Preview The Secretions new record, GREASYHOTMEETCHEEZY, at Capitol Dawg on July 2. Catch them live at the Blue Lamp on July 3 and at the Boardwalk on July 20. For more information visit myspace.com/secretions or secretinlifeline.blogspot.com

20,000 Breaks into the Sacramento Music Scene

Comprised of locals David Mohr and girlfriend Meg Larkin, the band 20,000 is relatively new to the Sacramento music scene—but with their youthful energy and down to earth attitudes, it’s no wonder that fans are quickly tuning in. “By default, I usually just say it’s dance music with guy/girl vocals and synthesizers,” Larkin says about their style. Even if you’re not typically a fan of dance music, there is no doubt that the upbeat tempo and catchy lyrics of 20,000 will have you up and out of your seat in no time.

It started as a dream—literally. Mohr says, “I had a dream a while ago that we had a band and we named it 20,000.” Both Mohr and Larkin are adamant that if you dream it, you must do it, and thus 20,000 was born. “If you do what you do in your dreams in real life, then it’s almost like you’re predicting the future,” Mohr says.

“Yeah, it’s true,” Larkin adds. “If you dream that you’re wearing red socks, you have to buy a pair of red socks and wear them.”

About two years ago, sparks started flying, musically, that is. Mohr began writing music on his computer, and then he and Larkin started adding vocals. Mohr says, “When I was writing the songs for the album, I was listening to music that has a lot of synths in it, but not necessarily electronic music.” They cite musicians such as Prince, Talking Heads and Hot Chip as being very influential during that time period. Larkin says, “Up until a couple of years ago I never really listened to dance music, but it’s some of my favorite music now.”

The goal for their music is simple: create songs with a good beat that people will want to party and dance to. Mohr says, “While we were recording the album, I was thinking it would be cool to just have a good CD for people to listen to in their houses at parties.” He writes all of their songs, and is no stranger to the music world. He played with some of his high school buddies in a band called Didley Squat for about six years, and when that gig dissolved, he naturally transitioned into forming 20,000.

While they had been diligently practicing and recording songs at home for many months, their first live performance happened this past August, at Old Ironsides. “We were apparently really visibly nervous,” Larkin remembers. “I was wearing short shorts and this crop top, just trying to be funny, but it was the most intimidating outfit to wear in front of people as a joke.” While their first show was definitely nerve-wracking, a lot of their friends came out to show support and it was a fun experience that paved the way for future shows. Other than Old Ironsides, they’ve played at Javalounge, Luigi’s Fun Garden and Blue Lamp.

When transitioning to live performances, Mohr says that one of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to make everything sound right in such a drastically different environment. After spending two years perfecting their songs in their apartment with only a tiny set of computer speakers—and trying to keep the noise level down so as not to disturb the neighbors—they now had to create a seamless performance in a real venue.

For Larkin, there was the added challenge of being brand-new to the music scene. She had been involved with musicals during high school but had no prior experience with playing an instrument. “When we decided to start playing live shows, I learned how to play rudimentary keyboard,” she says. This was completely terrifying at first, and she remembers being nervous for six or seven hours before a show, to the point where she could barely eat or drink. But as time went on and performing became more commonplace, her nervous energy eventually went away, and now she loves the thrill of shows. “When we have a show and there’s people responding to it and everyone is nice it’s like, yes! We’re the best band ever! Let’s do this every night!”

Both members play keyboards and sing, and their drumbeats are on an iPod. This means that they can carry all of their instruments to a show and set everything up on their own—no roadies required. “It’s super easy for us to set up,” Larkin explains, adding that it literally takes about four minutes. “Just put the keyboards on the stand, plug it in, turn the iPod on and we’re set.”

Although perhaps they hadn’t planned to “make it big” in the music business, the Sacramento music scene has been good to 20,000. Larkin is surprised at how easy it has been to get shows that they really enjoy. Their friends have also been extremely encouraging in this new venture. Larkin says, “It’s definitely been cool to see how supportive our friends have been, getting them to come out and pay for shows over and over and over again.”

20,000 will likely become a common name in the Sacramento area as time progresses. The couple is ecstatic about their 2009 New Year’s Eve show at Blue Lamp, which has been the biggest show they’ve played so far.

You can check them out on Myspace: www.myspace.com/20000music.

2Me Adapts to Any Situation

Life can undo the best made plans. However, those who stay open-minded are able to shift gears without much problem, and often find a change in direction a breath of fresh air. Sacramento’s ever-morphing folk-rock group 2Me seems to thrive under this ethos.

Here’s one example of 2Me’s willingness to go with the flow: When Submerge spoke with 2Me’s drummer and co-founding member Reid Foster, he was standing outside the Rogue Ale’s Public House in snowy Portland, Ore. He and his band—currently consisting of guitarist/bassist Mark Gonzalez and second founding member, singer/guitarist Christopher Twomey—were slated to play a show in either Oregon or Washingon. We asked Foster if they had the situation sorted out. He responded, “No, we didn’t actually. But we’ve got a friend who plays in a Jerry Garcia cover band, and they’re doing a party here tonight, so we’re just going to hang out with them and sit in between their sets.”

Since forming in August 2003, 2Me has seen many musicians come and go. Twomey and Foster have been the band’s only two consistent members. Foster acknowledges that the many comings and goings have made life in 2Me rather challenging, but it has also kept things interesting.

“I think it keeps it pretty exciting, but it also keeps it challenging for us to—you know, you’ve got people learning the songs here and there, or not learning them and winging it,” he explains. “It’s always like we’ve got to keep on our toes with stuff like that, but it’s really fun. There are a lot of times when we’ll hear something we didn’t think we’d hear, and all of us will get that same glimmer in our eyes when we’re on stage like, ‘Damn, that just happened!’ It’s cool.”
Other than Twomey and Foster, the only other constant for 2Me has been momentum. Foster describes their growing fan base as “an ever-growing community of people who’d maybe just met, or maybe known each other for years.”

This community has a chance to grow even larger this holiday season. 2Me is planning on releasing a new album, Chasing Silhouettes the day after Christmas.

You’ve had a lot of members, but 2Me has always been you and Chris, since the beginning.
Yeah, it’s always been at least Chris and myself. We had a couple of guys who were with us the first three years, and they ended up going their separate ways; ever since then it’s been Chris and myself and who ever else is down to play with us. We had a mandolin player named Ken Burnett, who’s toured with us here and there the past couple years. He’s a pretty regular fixture, but he had to take this weekend off and stay home.

Most bands kind of shut down this time of year, but I saw you guys were squeezing in three dates right before Christmas.
That was kind of a random whim. We’d been talking about when to do it, and we were at the Blue Lamp in Sacramento, and the owner was right there and he said, “How about the day after Christmas? It’ll be a great day and blah blah blah”¦” So we figure it’ll be real great for the people who are in town and real bad for the people who aren’t [laughs].

I’d read in your bio that you guys clocked 30,000 miles last year. So I’d imagine you guys play out a lot.
Yeah, we did most of that in one trip. Well, most of it. It was two big trips, but one really, really retardedly big trip. We were just talking about that with someone last night, and Chris was like, “I’d never want to do that again,” and I was like, “Yeah, well, me neither, but it was good—in its own unique way.”

How long were you on the road in those two trips?
Just under five months for the first chunk, and then just a few weeks for the second chunk.

What was that experience like?
It was intense in a lot of ways. It was pretty excessive most of the time; a little mellow some of the time, but you get to a new town and stay there for a couple of days, and if you’re lucky, you have a family for that couple of days that you’ve never met before. We had some really good hangs like that, just staying with people we knew, friends of friends, or sometimes who we just met that night at the bar we were playing. We made some lifelong friends on that trip. It’s really come back around for us full circle already. It was amazing.

Can you think of a specific case where it has come around for you full circle?
Some people we met at a bar in Mizzoula [Mont.] came up to us between sets. It was just Chris and myself, and we’d never been there before, and it was freezing that night. It was kind of a slow night, and these guys tore into the bar and came up to us and said, “We’re doing shots!” So we took a set break and did some shots, and when we finished, we met with them at the bar around the corner and ended up crashing with them for a couple of days. Two of those people have driven through Sacramento a couple of times and crashed at our house. We just saw them a couple of weeks ago, and it turned out that Gonzo [Mark Gonzalez] knew them in some weird random way. It’s really nuts. It’s ridiculous how the dots have connected on that type of level.

The more you go out in the world, the more you realize how small it really is, I would imagine.
That’s for sure. That is a fact if I’ve ever heard one.

Practically speaking, when you were on the road back in 2007, gas prices were around twice as much as they are now. How were you able to handle that?
We definitely had some conversations lately about how we wished we were doing that [touring the country] right now. It wasn’t even a thing. Gas prices had been going up gradually for the last few years. It was like, “Well these are the gas prices. That’s what we’re going to have to pay if we want to go on tour.”

Now that they’ve come down, do you think you’ll hit the road again?
Well, I don’t think we’re going to hit the road that big—or for that long—any time again soon. We’re trying to pull in the reigns and let ourselves get back home and rest every once and a while. But we’ve got some two- and three-week runs just scattered through 2009—just mapping out where we’re going to be and how long we’re going to be. I think it will be less hectic; the excitement will be jam-packed, but we’ll have some breathers here and there instead of just coasting the entire time.

It sounds like that will be a lot healthier.
I think so—on a lot of levels [laughs].

I know I’m jumping all over the place, but how did you and Chris meet up?
One of his younger brothers was a drinking buddy of mine just out of high school. Chris was kind of like the older brother who played guitar, and we’d see him whenever we saw him, and a lot of times it would be at 4 in the morning when all of us were like 30 beers deep… well, that’s an exaggeration, but, you know, at 4 in the morning. We never really knew each other all that well, but we were out at the bar one night, and he was like, “Let’s start a band,” and sure enough it happened a few weeks later. It happened real naturally, and it’s been quite a trip ever since.

What was it like when you first started playing together? Did you think it was going to go anywhere, or were you just doing it for fun at the time?
It was a little bit of both. I was seeing big from day one, and Chris was seeing big too. He was like, “Woah, it would be crazy if that happened,” and I was more like, “Let’s make it happen!” It’s been really interesting to see how realistic those dreams were in some ways, and how unrealistic the were in others, because we had no idea what we were doing when we first started playing. We always were seeing big, at the very least, and looking at the way things have gone, and it’s been a pretty cool journey.

What were you thinking that turned out to be unrealistic?
I think maybe it was unrealistic, I think we just didn’t collectively know what it took to realize the things that we wanted to be doing. There’s a lot of work that goes into it, and sometimes it takes a while to figure out how to do it—not to mention what that work actually is [laughs].

Utz! and the Shuttlecocks

The Blue Lamp, Sacramento, CA
Sunday, Oct. 11, 2008

Arriving fashionably late with just enough time to grab a drink before the Shuttlecocks come onstage, the crowd is simmering gently, warmed up and ready for the main act. Blue Lamp is your stereotypical venue: pricey drinks that are half the size as the last bar we visited and bartenders who furiously dole out drinks in attempt to keep up with the scene kids swarming around the bar. But, it’s a cozy atmosphere—brick walls and a classy-looking wooden bar, with a crowd that is more likely to start a dance party than a fight.

As the first notes from the band hit my ears, singer Sean Merold jumps across the stage—dressed in a clown suit? Turns out he is aptly dressed given his skill at entertaining the crowd as he and his female counterpart Debbie Niles take turns singing, firing off smooth musical chemistry as their highs and lows bounce off each other. Niles, a fiery redhead in big boots, is no wallflower, and knows how to rock the crowd in equal measure. Meanwhile, fellow band members Tony Whittaker, Michael Casagrande and John Hall are no strangers to rocking out.

Like a variety show taken to the max, this band knows their stuff. Rather than relying on over-played drunken karaoke cover songs like Journey or ACDC, the band impresses the crowd with a brand spankin’ new Coldplay song, “Viva la Vida.” From Coldplay to the Cure—with a little Kanye and Eminem thrown into the mix—it’s easy to forget that you’re listening to a cover band rather than the genuine article.

Midway through the show, as I coax a sound guy to let me climb onto a platform to snap some pictures, it hits me that the audience has grown in size, complete with a wedding party that ups the energy of the room tenfold. More than just performance artists, Utz! and the Shuttlecocks should be known as party artists, infusing the bar with power-packed jams and positive emotional energy. Everyone is dancing and screaming along. The end of the night winds down with some old school hip-hop before it’s time to pack up the instruments and call it a night.

It was a pretty seamless performance overall, and included juiced up renditions of too many songs to list. You may not know every song, but the hodge-podge set list this band puts together promises that whether you’re a rapster or a coffee shop maiden, you’ll find your groove during this show.