Front man Frank Casillas always begins VGS shows wearing a skeleton mask, but only for the first song. Then he pulled it off and sported wrap-around sun glasses the rest of the show. He darted about the stage, seldom staying in one spot for long. There was steady moshing and stage diving going on, but when the band lit into their cover of Charlie Brown, things went really wild. That intensity never let up after the Skulls churned out hit after hit including my favorite, Shoot the Moon. I was having to dodge stage divers left and right, but somehow misjudged one who knocked me off balance and onto my butt. My elbow hit the concrete floor pretty hard. It wasn’t until after the show when I went into the bathroom to have a look, that I realized I had a nasty gash and was oozing blood. Thirty plus years I’ve avoided a major injury in the mosh pit and in one fell swoop . . . needless to say, my elbow hurts like hell 24 hours later and is swollen and colorful. I will wear my “war wound” like a crown. The Skulls put on a wild, but totally fun show.
Preceding the Skulls was Guttermouth. This is my third time seeing them, but I really think this show was the best I’d seen them do. Vocalist/front man Mark Adkins riled his audience into a frenzy by constantly leaning into the crowd, often thrusting the mic into faces so they could shout along. He also interjected humor constantly and also proved he’s a conscientious person. A man in a wheelchair was in the audience and he somehow got the guy, wheelchair and all, onto the stage. Have you ever seen someone mosh in a wheelchair? I hadn’t until this fateful night. This guy totally rocked. He did wheelies, spun a 360 and thrust his fist into the air often. He remained on stage the entire GM set.
At one point in their set, the bass player for opening band Hilltop Rats came on stage and Mark threatened to cut his beard off. Some dude in the audience just happened to have an electric razor, which Mark took and plugged in, but only ended up shaving a bit of hair from said bass player’s head.
War wounds and all, being up front against the stage for a punk show is tantamount to riding in the very first car on a roller coaster. It’s the only place to be.
Preceding Guttermouth was the Motor City’s Against the Grain. I saw ATG earlier this year opening for Koffin Kats and still found them intriguing. All four of them have long hair roaming all the way down their backs and they whipped their hair about non-stop as they churned away on their guitars. Vocalist Chris Nowak and guitarist Nick Bellomo could be Plant and Page with their blond and dark cascading curls. Against the Grain are more metal than punk, but there are punk elements to their music.
Prior to Against the Grain was Hilltop Rats. Hailing from Tacoma, WA. HT Rats play a hard, thrashy type of metal punk. They’re a new band judging by the fact they just joined Facebook earlier this year. Like Against the Grain, they sported that throwback to the seventies look with scraggly hair and beards. New or not, Hilltop Rats are a tight unit and I’ll expect to see them at more gigs in the very near future.
Unfortunately I missed the first band, Raptor Tractor. Tacoma is about an hour’s drive south of me and I hit nasty traffic until I passed downtown Seattle. From what I could hear as I entered the club, they sounded great.
The one drawback of the night (with the exception of getting injured) was the sound quality. The sound was not mixed well and the vocals were often drowned out by the guitars and percussion. Other than that, this will be a night long remembered.
