This post has been delayed by life, whoops. About two weeks ago I had the treat of catching the Flatliners at the FUBAR, with some opening bands including Arms Aloft, which I will get to in one quick second. But first, I have something to say about the FUBAR. Where is everyone? This venue, although on the deafeningly loud side of the volume scale, is a fun venue centrally located, but I have to say that every time I see a band at the FUBAR I am surprised by the relatively small size of the crowd. This show was on a Sunday, so maybe everyone was at mass or having a regular Rockwell family dinner, but the Flatliners are a good band and the size of the crowd was not the way STL can keep getting good punk shows folks. How empty? Well, I tried to take a picture of Arms Aloft in a manner that didn’t make me look like one of those people so intent on videotaping a show on my iphone that I might as well be watching later on youtube, so I flung up my arm and took a quick shot. Looks like the Iphone thought it would be hilarious to flip the camera, so instead of Arms Aloft, I got a picture of the three folks behind me and the rest of the bar. Granted I am old and stand in the back, but you get the picture (literally now).
Since I didn’t get a picture of Arms Aloft, I will at least say that they put on a good show for a very small crowd, and would be worth checking out. Never heard of them, give them a listen.
The Flatliners put in quite an effort. I must admit that I haven’t done a good job at keeping up with any new music that the band has put out since Cavalcade, but this Canadians still put on a good show and their songs I didn’t know the words to were strong. It was S’ birthday that night so, Happy Birthday you elderly broad (breaking news S has since cut his hair and returned to his status as a middle aged man from the depths of being an elderly broad). Here is a pic of the show, since I actually got my phone to agree to take a forward picture at one point. (I would note that this battle with my phone had nothing to do with any beers from 4hands brewing co. or Urban Chestnut brewing co. that might have been on special at the Flying Saucer for $3 a pint per-show. Any suggestions to the contrary are preposterous.)
These are dated, but two of my favorite Flatliners’ tracks.
This one is actually a video for Carry the Banner. Query why punk bands have videos of waking up homeless on the streets and then playing music (see Lawrence Arms “Devil’s Taking Names.” Maybe that is what it is like to tour as a punk band.
last but not least, saw a reference to the Article “Punk Rock is Bullshit” on Brendan Kelly’s twitter feed. As an aside, if you aren’t reading Brendan’s blog (and are reading this one), bad choice, his is great. I say read them both, but if you are choosing, don’t be a dummy. The article is interesting (maybe a little wordy), but definitely check out Red Scare Toby’s response as I think it puts things in the proper perspective. The crux of Toby’s response (which also made it into the comment of the day from the same publication), albeit a quote or a quote at this point, “Like the dude from Funhouse said, punk rock (and all of art and life, for that matter) is what you make of it.” Words to live by. Leave it to someone writing during the winter in Seattle to say that punk rock is bullshit and try to rain on this long running parade. Is there some bullshit involved, uh, ya, of course. But for the most part, punk rock (whatever that means to me) is pretty awesome as far as I am concerned.
ziphoodielife 