Last night Destroy Everything and Hotlips Messiah played a show at Roc Bar in Chicago. Normally this bar doesn’t have live music playing and I think it is pretty new and it is owned by one of the members of the band Disturbed. I am not really a fan of that band, however the bar was a nice place and the people who worked there all were very cool. Not to mention them having a punk rock show makes them aces in my book!
Hotlips Messiah
Hotlips Messiah
The Klownvan came to pick me up around 5:30 and we went to the music shop for some gear needed for the show since the bar had no sound system of their own for the bands to use. After a battle with some of the worst traffic on earth, we got there with plenty of time to spare and set up all the gear. After the gear was set up, Hamilton, Hanover, and I went to grab a bite to eat at the Hollywood Grill, which is a greasy spoon a few doors down from the bar. I will go on record saying their hamburger and fries were quite adequate.
Hotlips Messiah
Hotlips Messiah
Hotlips Messiah played first. Since I last saw them, they have ousted their female singer. They played a bunch of songs with Rich and Rexx singing and despite them breaking my cardinal rule that a new punk band should never cover an old punk song (they did a Nuns song), they were perhaps the best that I’ve ever seen them. I was really enjoying their set and so were the people in the crowd.
Hotlips Messiah with Traci Trouble singing
Near the end of their set, they played a couple songs that their former lady singer used to sing, with a new lady singer, one Traci Trouble, handing the vocal duties. Trouble kicked ass and was a better than perfect fit and sounded much better than their old lady singer! I told them all they should continue playing together when they were done.
Destroy Everything
Destroy Everything
After a short time, Destroy Everything played. They were as enjoyable as they ever are, which is most enjoyable. The crowd was digging it and they played a few new songs. Luckily for the people, Hanover was not wearing a kilt, thus there was no threat of him exposing his junk to blind the masses. I believe they played for about 45 minutes and the time seemed to fly by really fast, which is a sign that their set was very enjoyable and one wasn’t thinking about things like what time it is.
Destroy Everything
Destroy Everything
After their set, we hung around and continued drinking. Well I didn’t continue for long as I opted to stop drinking so I’d be sober enough to drive us home at the end of the night since it didn’t appear anyone else would be able to, which was fine by me. I saw a couple old friends at the show that I had not seen in quite some time (including Miro, who taught me a new trick with the camera which I now dub, “Miro-Vision”) which was nice, along with meeting some new people that were very cool. The evening was a total blast and the bar was a fun place to hang out, hopefully we can have another show there in the future.
Destroy Everything
Destroy Everything
After the bar closed, we all went back to the Hollywood Grill for breakfast. I was told by one of our friends in attendance that hookers frequent that place, though we didn’t see any when we were there. On the way there, a squeegee guy came up to us wanting to know if he could wash the van. I told him no, as a general rule I can’t stand the squeegee guys. He saw that we were going to eat and asked if we had any leftovers if we would bring them out and let him have them. I told him that I would and I gave him two pieces of gum before we walked in. After we ate, I saved the leftovers in a take out box but when we got outside, squeegee man was nowhere to be seen, despite our yelling for him, “hey squeegee guy”. I set the boxes of food on the sidewalk near where our van was parked in case he would return and find them.
Destroy Everything
We returned at around 4am and I went to sleep with a smile on my face after a very fun evening out. It was a long but very fun night.
More photos can be seen below…
Hotlips Messiah with Traci Trouble singing
Hotlips Messiah
Destroy Everything
Destroy Everything
Destroy Everything
Destroy Everything
Destroy Everything (in Miro-Vision)
Destroy Everything (in Miro-Vision)
Destroy Everything
Destroy Everything
You might have explained it before, but I think it’s odd for you to have “rules” about other bands. Maybe you should start your own band and then follow your rules instead of impose them on others? Just a thought. So can MDC play Blink 182 covers?
Maybe I’m a weirdo, but I do know I’m not the only person that I know that feels the same way. While I have no problem with punk bands covering rock songs (as they often do them better), I think it is lame for a new punk band to cover an old punk song. What’s the point? They won’t do the song any justice, they can’t make it better, and it just screams of unoriginality. In many cases, these bands don’t need to do it because their own songs are just fine. I hold the old punk I grew up on in such high regard that it is almost blasphemy in my eyes when a new band covers some classic punk song. They should be trying do do something new and challenging like the bands they are covering did, instead of opting for the “cheap pop” of doing a song some old timers may be familiar with.
Blink 182 is not a punk band, so I guess it would be OK, though I’d like to think MDC would be above that. Not to mention I’d hope they wouldn’t be listening to that crap.