Flatfoot 56

Dislocated shoulder, bump on the noggin, bruised stomach, elbow and knee, hair soaked with beer, spit, and sweat that's not mine. That's me after the Street Dogs show. Reggie's has quickly become a favorite place of mine to see a show here in the windy city. Until this show, I have yet to see it so packed. Part of that was because it was a Saturday, part of that was because it was the Street Dogs, but most of it had to do with Flatfoot 56 playing their hometown show.

The night started off with the Retardos Del Mor. I came in about halfway through their set because there was an acoustic jam band called Conductive Alliance playing some amazing music at the record store upstairs. I couldn't believe what I saw when I came downstairs and saw them on stage. I thought to myself, these are some of the oldest, ugliest dudes I have ever seen on stage, but damn can they rock. They played a very simplistic style of old-school punk rock. The highlight of what I saw them play had to have been the bass player going crazy on the xylophone. The singer just seemed to be in a trance during their set, running from one side of the stage to the other, gazing into the crowd as if it went on for a mile. Their last song, "Juice" was a fun song with a chorus about blood piss, and cum (his "Juice").

Playing second that night were hometown heroes Flatfoot 56. I had read a posting earlier that week from them, calling all their fans to come out and blow the roof off of the club. It seems a shitload of people got that message because the Flatfoot fans came out in droves. This guy I've seen at most of the shows I've been to out here told me that Flatfoot is an amazing live show -- I had no idea just how much so.

I was up front for their set and that was my first mistake. As soon as the band took the stage, the crowd pushed up and I was being crushed. Had I been any shorter, I would have suffered broken ribs. There is a metal pipe that acts as a border between the crowd and the stage and I spent most of their set with my stomach pressed right up against that. Several times, I was hit so hard that it knocked the wind out of me. When Flatfoot started playing, the crowd never let up. I'm not too familiar with their old material and their new CD never really thrilled me, but they were awesome to see perform.

They exploded with passion for both their music and playing to their friends. The brothers Bawinkel were frantic on stage, often-times climbing the monitors and screaming lyrics back at the crowd. Like a couple of chickens with their heads cut off, they dashed around the stage, tossing their instruments about themselves and never missing a beat all the while. Their pipes/mandolin player performed excellently that night. While I never considered them to have a real strong Scottish influence to their guitar work, their usage of bagpipes and a mandolin fit seamlessly into their songs. And it was him who got the crowd to do the wall of death. Having only heard stories of the wall of death, it was great to finally see one happen. Like a pack of wild dogs waiting for the attack command, the crowd parted and anxiously stood off. When Tobin gave the word, they all just went apeshit and charged each other.

Like I said, I'm not too familiar with all the names of their songs, but I did recognize my favorite tracks from Jungle of the Midwest Sea: "City on a Hill," "Loaded Gun" and "Chinatown Jailbreak." The latter was fitting since the show was at the Chinatown stop for the El.

Up next was Time Again. I had never thought much of them and their live show changed very little about that. When I first hear them, I thought they were a bunch of Rancid wannabes. The singer had the same haircut and Rancid tattoos as Tim and their music was very similar. Now, he's cut his hair. The tattoos and the music haven't changed much and that's unfortunate. I was pretty bored with their set for the most part. The only saving grace would had to have been their guitarist. While nothing they played was very intricate, he had an amazing stage presence about him. He dropped down on his knees, center stage, during a solo and played his guitar in his lap. He would spin, jump, and play behind his head. They brought a couple guys on stage to sing a song with them and that was cool. They seemed to have a blast singing with the band. While I can't say that I would enjoy that, I know how awesome it would be to go on stage and sing with your favorite band. I think if I actually liked this band, I would have enjoyed their set more, but I was mostly counting down songs until the Street Dogs played.

Having just released a new album in July, the fitting thing to do is to tour in support of it, and thus, we have the State of Grace Tour. I had seen the Street Dogs perform several times on the East Coast, twice at Shamrock Festival and once at the Warped Tour, so this would be my first club show seeing them. Like they said during their set, that was the kind of place t - Punknews.org