The Avengers 10/20/07 at Reggie’s

This past Saturday I went to Reggie’s Rock Club to see The Avengers play. The Avengers are absolutely one of my all time favorite punk rock bands of all time, and this would be my first time seeing a show at this new club.

First let’s talk about the club. Reggie’s Rock Club is part of a triad of businesses opened by Record Breakers. It has the record store (which believe it or not, I didn’t take the time to check out that night), a bar and a live music venue. The bar was very nice, and the venue was also very nice. They did a lot of things right when they built this place; nice sized stage, good room with the floor built on a slant going up the farther you go back, adequate room, a balcony and a pretty good sound system. I have only two complaints and they are minor; they could use more light on that stage (I had to use my flash which always bums me out), and I wish they had put a barricade in front of the stage (I’m getting spoiled shooting all these bigger shows that have those barricades up front). There wasn’t a very big crowd this evening so it gave me a little more freedom to move around than I normally would have. I can easily see if a show was sold out being pinned in one place the whole night. From a non-photographers standpoint, you can easily see the action on stage anywhere in that room which is very nice.

Four Star Alarm

Four Star Alarm

Four Star Alarm

Four Star Alarm

Four Star Alarm opened the show. This is the third time I have seen them play and in keeping with tradition, I seem to enjoy them more each time. They have a really punchy but melodic punk rock. It’s pretty quick tempo but nowhere near hardcore. They definitely have a Chicago punk rock influence with the powerful and odd guitar sound leading a very energetic sound. Their guitarist, Jeff, plays with a lot of energy and is constantly moving around a lot on stage. They played about a half an hour.

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah played second. They seem to get better each time I see them as well and they were very much on par with the last time I saw them, which was the best they’ve been yet. They play a rather oddball old style punk with keyboards on top of the traditional instruments and Traci Trouble is one hell of a captivating frontwoman! These guys really need to put out a record! They also played about a half hour and the time seemed to fly by. Think 1970’s style art-punk and you’ll be in their ballpark.

Pansy Division

Pansy Division

Pansy Division

Pansy Divsion

Pansy Division were next. They play a very melodic and sing along style of queer punk. Their lyrics are very humorous and often are about gay things. Their songs are really catchy and they also seem to have a good sense of humor and just put on a really fun show. Their guitar player even changed into a cocktail dress at one point! After awhile their set seemed to drag a little as the songs started to sound the same to me, but overall they were pretty entertaining and the crowd loved them.

Avengers

Avengers

Avengers

After what felt like a long wait, but probably really wasn’t because I was just excited, The Avengers took the stage. They opened with “Cheap Tragedies” which is one of my favorite songs of theirs. It sounded great! It was one “hit” after the other from that point forward. Songs like “Second to None”, Thin White Line”, “Car Crash” and more sounded even better than they did the last time I saw them, and that was a great show too. In between songs, Penelope made some small talk including telling how they were stuck with a flat tire in the van earlier that day. They played about 45 minutes and closed the main part of their set with “The American in Me”. The crowd, which seemed to be made up a lot of older punks for a change, were fairly subdued, preferring to pogo or bounce in place instead of getting a pit going and playing human bumper cars. I actually appreciated it because it gave me the freedom to shoot from right up front without getting clocked in the back. During “The American in Me” however the front of the club exploded into a pit.

Avengers

Avengers

Avengers

Avengers
After about a two minute rest, they came back out and played “We Are the One” which got another pit going, and they closed with some cover song that I have heard before but couldn’t remember what the song was or who originally did it, it was an old rock song. The crowd would have loved more but since it was an all ages show, they had to end for the curfew, plus the band pretty much played all their songs anyway! I left extremely satisfied!

Thank you Penelope for the guest list action! As always you can find some additional photos on my flickr stream.