Austin Sound

Photos by Ashley Cole (Click pics for full image)

Friday night I thought I’d go check out the Tangled Snark Summer Parties at the Monarch, which I, for some reason unbeknownst to me, figured would be a good idea. Little did I understand that I had just stepped into a melting pot of drunkenness, violence, and downright craziness in its lowest form; in other words, my naïve ass just got thrown into the middle of a punk show. Mixed in with the raw coolness of chick drummers and intense bassists, there lingered angst-riddled fans, the spilling of much innocent alcohol, and miniature mosh pits where guys took off their shirts and leaped onto stage. Well, they attempted to leap on stage anyway, but mostly

just ran at the stage missing it the majority of times, so they’d fall and then try to do it again about a hundred times. I kept thinking to myself, “Holy shit! What the hell did I get myself into this time…and how many more times is this guy gonna fall down before we call an ambulance!?” Of course, that was nothing compared to the insanity that would explode onstage by the end of the night.

Opening act, Deadly Companions, set the tone for the debauchery that ensued throughout the night. Most of the bands on the bill had two guitarists in their ensemble, but DC’s Rob Yazzie compensated for their one guitar lineup with awesome bluesy riffs that gave the band an audible hook, as opposed to the speedy franticness that most of the night’s punk rock melodies resembled. A more skate-inspired punk band, Sober Daze, followed with quick, abrupt songs and some political vitriol. And if there is one thing I love more than a bass player that knows what he‘s doing, it’s one that is also lead vox. More people began trickling into the immense space at the Monarch during that set and made their way to the stage. There were choruses that people knew and also some new songs like “Instant Thrills” that were fun so people just moshed, hit the crap out of each other and threw beer at the band. Which in that jungle I was lost in, I’m pretty sure meant the natives liked it.

I looked away for only a minute or so and when my gaze returned there was a menagerie of people on stage with the Hoodrats jumping around to the song “Bus Driver,” which delved deep into the complex issue of killing the bus driver, something I’m sure we all face. More music played covering a wide range of topics including fucking, doing drugs and once again, riding the bus. Chick drummer, Katy, kept with the theme of the night: simple, yet solid base lines underneath screaming lyrics and schizophrenic lead guitar. Darren, guitarist for Scrabble Robot, jumped onstage during the last song to add a bit of variety with his super screamer lyrics. The next performers were probably my favorite, MonkeyTown, which first started as a one man band with Joey Gravis, and now contained Michael Barnes on bass and Rhett Hubertus on drums. As a novice to the beautiful mess that is the punk scene, the harmonica and synth additions in their songs made the sound, as a whole, much more inviting for me. Yet, this could be seen as negative because it made them sound a little more upbeat or mainstream. The long songs were anything but upbeat lyrically, though. Songs like “Gauge” and “The Endless Sound” are very poppy and melodic but still retain the intense loud and hard rhythms. Along with that sound, they mixed up their set with more traditionally piercing, fast songs as well.

Honestly, I realize there is a certain tension, or anger that is supposed to be connected to punk in its essential form, but really…Scrabble Robot may have had a few family issues goin’ on during their performance. It wasn’t the fact that Paul, on lead vox, was berating his comrades on stage (this is apparently normal and somewhat expected at these events) but they were not on the same page at all. Was there a set list? Who knows! If there was, Paul wasn’t sharing it considering the fact that the other three guys in the band rarely knew what song they were playing or what was going on at all in general. They played a few cover songs and also had a bit more of a pop sound and the guy on bass really came through, especially in songs like “No Love” and “I’m Over You.”

As it gets later in the evening you can only expect that everyone is twice as wasted as they were at the beginning, which is pretty damn inebriated considering the level of drunkenness they started with. It is only logical then, that people are continuing to mosh, kick the crap out of each other, throw beers on stage (and guess what, they’re getting better at it too) and also spit beer everywhere at exponentially increasing levels. The Ape-Shits began to play and after about ten minutes their drummer took the drum kit apart and left for another gig (The Golden Boys at Emo‘s). Utter chaos was only five minutes in the making because not soon after Dean and fellow guitarist Shawn started fighting. Then they started talking shit to each other and the audience, which was a tad comedic and kind of uncomfortable. And I was thinking…this must be part of the show, but if it was, surely it would have happened at the end of the set (around 30 to 40 minutes) but this ridiculousness happened barely fifteen minutes after they began. But before that happened I would say the best way to describe their sound, and that of the following and last group to perform Black Panda, is to combine everyone from the first five acts and give them some steroids, or maybe bad smack. Louder, faster, harder and much more penetrating, which was nice. Yet the only thing I had written down about them was - What the fuck just happened?

Yoshi, lead vox from Black Panda, has so much passion in his voice although I don’t know if he kept saying ‘black panda’ over and over again, or ‘fuck you’ over and over again. Actually I don’t think he’s saying either one of those things, but that’s what it sounds like. And it doesn’t even matter what he’s saying because they had so much unadulterated energy and the instrumentals were severe. Very entertaining. It was all so exhilarating and a nice little break from some of the mundane music I have heard as of late.

The Monarch, up by Highland Mall, was the perfect venue for this madness to be created. It’s a huge venue, so it was never overwhelmingly loud, and there is a big stage. The lighting and sound were solid and they had these badass screens on the walls and showed some freaky videos ranging from kaleidoscopes to old action films and atomic bomb news reels. The crowd was a bit small, but I’m pretty sure if it was any bigger, I may have never survived to tell you about it! Tangled Snark is putting these summer parties on into August with some exciting line-ups that you can check out at www.myspace.com/tangledsnarkproductions. I highly recommend making the trip out there in the early evening to experience it.