Mister Blank

It’s a Sunday night in late December – post-Christmas blah, still a day to go before New Year’s eve (when I MIGHT have screwed up the energy to go hear a band), when my wife and I heard about a ska-punk band we wanted to hear playing on a bill at Southgate – a bar attached to a roller rink (former home of The Rat City Roller Girls) inexcusably close to our house to avoid out of laziness. And, it was even a dry…ish night after a dreary week of rain so we thought we’d better take advantage of it and go.

And me and the Mrs. are glad we did.

First up was the reason we heard of the show, from Portland relatives (disclaimer: band including their son): “Fake News” – a Rose City band that has been around and making the circuit up to Seattle area too for about a year and a half, according to front man and song writer, Brendan Deiz.

Www.fakenewsska.bandcamp.com

Along with guitar (Brendan), bass (Dusty, tearing it up in bursts), and drums (a massively energetic Conway – nearly sucked into his set) was Allie on sax (always leaning everything into it), and former Seattle-ite (like 20 years ago he says – now a Portland music teacher) Jason, on trombone. That two piece horn section sounded like 5 and put up a Great Wall of of sound, along their and Dusty’s backing to Brendan’s lead vocals.

While only a short 9 song set, Fake News blasted seamlessly through tight tempo transitions – syncopated, upbeat ska/reggae, precipitously tumbling into angry, hard-edged punk riffs. While this has been done well before of course, Fake News then throws a good wrench into the works by adding in Latin musical elements, with songs in Spanish, Cumbia-influenced rhythms and guitar (Brendan, an accomplished Spanish guitarist…and rock ‘n roller etc., in his multiple other musical incarnations – yes, he’s a walking Portland cliché). Toss in some blunt politics (in songs like “Sin Frontera” – ‘Without Borders- and self explanatory “Delete Alt Right”), and you’ve got something different and real – nothing fake here, monikers notwithstanding.

But it was that base, pounding punk/ska sound that immediately triggered a sense déjà vu for me – it took me just a moment to recognize it: I was suddenly transported to my own college days in early 1980’s St. Paul & Minneapolis, Minnesota – where bands like “Husker Du” formed (building on The Clash and other innovators) and were taking college campuses and local bars by storm, injecting a Midwestern punk directly into the veins of the poppier, reggae influenced college rock emanating from more widely palatable bands like The Police.

While involuntary head bobbing started immediately, two-thirds of the way through their set, Fake News had succeeded in drawing in the initially subdued, but surprisingly large crowd (40-50 people – not bad for a Sunday night anywhere), a good chunk taking up the dance floor.

A short break ushered in Seattle ska punk (definitely more ska this time) band “Mister Blank” which immediately capitalized on the crowd’s lit fuse (& kept us listening past our intended “school night” departure – I’m old, OK?) – while mowing us all down with an a four piece horn section lined up in front like a firing squad.

Fronting the drums, guitar, keyboard was lead vocalist, bassist and all-around show man, James Sweazea (with his energy and booming voice, somehow I kept almost expecting a trapeze artist and parading elephants to appear). Interjecting spot-on backing vocals from the keyboardist actually made me laugh out loud – not derisively (!) but just from the joyfulness of the ska sound and “all in” attitude of the whole band.

Www.misterblankband.com

Mister Blank delivers a solid, polished show of energy and dance-ability that’s impossible to resist. And even when making a social/political statement (such as one commentary on the pain of homelessness), it’s through the music and without pontification – perhaps incorporating a small change in tempo or key – which produces a noticeable and significant mood change: not an easy feat in a set so solidly ska (can you actually dance, thrash, and bounce even slightly somberly, meaningfully? Apparently so).

While the 80’s and 90’s zenith of ska punk may be past, fans, old and new, of the infectious, spasm-inducing sounds of ska punk can take comfort when venues like Southgate bar (& roller rink!), and talents like Fake News and Mister Blank are continuing to carry the torch of this genre so very well, both reverentially and innovatively – even if on a chilly December night in Rat City…er, White Center.

– Jeff Williams - Jeff Williams