The Vandals and Scissors, The House That Gloria Vanderbilt, Counterpunch Entertainment Art Reggies Rock Club Chicago, Ill. March 14, 2008

It’s no secret pop punk has, in the opinion of the DIY masses, declined since projects such as Fall Out Boy and Something Corporate or has beens, viewed as altogether unacceptable. The ideal timeframe, when it wasn’t about getting on MTV, was the era of No Use For A Name, NOFX, Millencolin, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, Rancid, The Queers, and The Vandals. We are talking about men who since their rise in 1981 and full fledge explosion in 1989, have become indie film producers, law men, religious scholars, alcohol distributors, actors, writers, and label owners just to rattle off a few. These bands were glossed over in media coverage, but lived at Warped Tour. Part of this reason was for content that had to be mostly censored in their authority defiant music, but the other part was these bands were business punks who elected to stay small in order to keep the most money and maintain their artistic freedom.

At a time in the mainstream where pop has blatantly been pre-judged and programmed for our “enjoyment,” the underground scene will retaliate as it becomes more invisible to our culture. And unlike the show filler we see today on television, The Vandals partnered into a lineup this tour, which brought the underground’s energy back. If Counterpunch was tame to some of the crowd, the DuPage-affiliated band Scissors were certainly anything but. We should expect by now, the only really horrendous thing to come out of DuPage is Plain White T’s.

Derek of Scissors took the stage pretending to be too big to know what city he was in, although he was ironically from that city. Guitarist, Steve admitted to being intimidated to play and was just happy to be at the sold-out show to see The Vandals. With shy admittance he was not Dave Quackenbush, Derek commenced the set like MC5’s Kick Out the Jams by announcing, “We’re going back to school.” This gave way to the song Spring Break, which chronicles its characters watching Fight Club before their escapades to get pumped. Although not distinctly related, it’s noticeable that Scissors have recorded with Matt Allison of Alkaline Trio, yet the vibe is that of Arctic Monkeys done right. The band tried to reason on stage with the Record Breakers/Reggie’s Crew that thirty to forty-five minutes for a punk rock set was very difficult, unless you had years of compendiums to fall back on, something rather impassable for the fairly new Scissors.

A circle pit ensued once the band had everyone concentrate, to determine if there was anyone they wanted to kill. The next song was a prompt to imagine the footage from Terminator 2 and keep in mind, You Can’t Just Go Around Killing People – you need to have a reason. Followed up with the offer that Derek’s sister was single, selling their album Viva, and they needed gas money to get to their date in Omaha. Scissors had made friends with the shirtless, the leathered, and the drunk amongst them.

Soon fans were asking each other if they had seen lead guitarist, Warren Fitzgerald’s movie, Cake Boy, about a man who had made erotic cakes, left his abusive girlfriend, and fell in love with a handicapped woman. They asked each other how long they waited, how long they traveled, how early they had to be up, if they had seen them before, and of course, were they really there for The Vandals. They asked each other what they would open with. Beer was shared, people asked where a safe place in the room would be, everyone made sure their shoes were on, and punk rock moms were ready to stop at nothing if bouncers got too close to their kids. One murderous-looking mosher and I traded beers and thanked each other simultaneously for the met need.

Dave and Warren took the stage saying the audience was making fun of them and calling them fat. Any pauses gave way to frantic screams to satisfy requests. The show fire-balled with “And Now We Dance,” and kids were surfed to the lyrics, “crack a head open and sue somebody.” The second song was “Pizza Tran,” followed by“I’ve Got An Ape Drape,” the mullet song from Hitler Bad, Vandals Good. Dave Quackenbush said he couldn’t remember whose birthday he was supposed to sing for so the band launched into “Happy Birthday to Me.”

Guards had a hard time keeping the crowd at bay, and things did get heated as crowd control nearly attacked a fan for being thrown. Keeping in mind this is Reggie’s, slam dancing is not as strictly enforced as other venues. Those who had cameras had to be fiercely careful, and were asked by many Vandals diehards where they could get the upcoming story. One girl remarked, “This kid’s my brother, so it’s okay if I hit him.” To which she received the reply, “No one answers domestic calls on this side of town.”

“It’s A Fact” was suggested and delivered with a calypso dance by Quackenbush and the classic reminder, “In five billion years, the sun will explode. It’s in the Bible. Rest assured in knowing that what you do won’t matter. Someone can do it better anyway. It’s a fact.” Warren was lifted by the audience as he played his famous solo, and definitely proved they can hold their set allowance.

And don’t count on The Vandals to tell you which political stance to take. This is a punk band that laughs at life and will let you decide for yourself. To them, it’s the right thing to do.

Comments

Counterpunch Written by Guest on 2008-04-04 00:10:01 dude props to Counterpunch the vocal tallent and live show was not brought out in this article which to me the reader a bit one sided the writter is obviously friends of the scissors who are good but holy shit Counterpunch fucking played amazing that night! give credit where its due!

baby boy Written by Guest on 2008-04-10 15:37:28 yeah - such 'good friends' that she calls darren "derek". The scissors just fuck shit up that's all... in a good way. and don't call me dude.

Oh geeze. Written by Guest on 2008-04-14 19:07:47 All around, a pretty interesting take on the evening. I was there, and all the bands were great. The Vandals of course had a little edge.

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