The very second The Dickies hit the stage, the packed crowd was ignited into a frenzied whirlpool of moshing and thrashing. I was thrown against the stage so many times I was tempted to get a CAT scan to make sure all my internal organs weren’t rearranged. This was particularly evident when they played Nights In White Satin and Paranoid. In fact, their punked up cover songs seemed to be the most popular judging by the amount of moshing going on.
The Dickies are part punk rock and part comedy team. Front man Leonard Graves-Phillips brings out numerous props at intervals during their performance. A blow up doll, a dog puppet and their famous penis puppet. I’ve seen a lot of bands over the course of the last 40 plus years, but The Dickies are the only band who does puppetry on stage while performing their songs. When the penis puppet came out, Leonard lit into the chorus of the Who’s See Me Feel Me.
For their cover of Gigantor, Leonard slung a white towel over his shoulders for use as a cape and strutted about like a comic book super hero without missing a beat.
They left the stage all too soon, but returned shortly for an encore which included their famous rendition of The Banana Splits Theme. No Dickies’ show is complete without The Banana Splits Theme.
Besides the aforementioned front man, The Dickies are comprised of Stan Lee-Guitar, Little Dave Teague-Guitar, Edward Tatar-bass guitar and Adam Gomez- drums.
When it was all over I limped away, stiff, sore and bruised. Now that’s a punk rock show!
Prior to the Dickies, was Seattle’s own Dreadful Children. Dreadful Children not only debuted new songs, but also debuted a new singer (Lizzie Franks)who sang harmonies alongside vocalist/frontman Lonny Bristle and sometimes took over on lead vocals. She also added a charismatic element to this raucous punk band. Dreadful Children play hard punk and have the punk look with piercings, tattoos and chains dangling off their clothing. Lonny Bristle fits the mold of punk front man perfectly, except where there’s usually a sneer, he adds a healthy dose of humor. Bass player Johnny Mischief rivals Lonny’s on stage antics. Despite his shaved on the side head and mohawk down the middle, despite the various piercings and tattoos, he’s very charismatic and energetic. I found myself bouncing back and forth watching the two of them, not wanting to miss what they did next. There was barely anyone NOT moshing throughout their entire set. Seattle punks must check out Dreadful Children if you haven’t already. They are massive fun. Besides Lonny and Johnny and Lizzie, Dreadful Children are, Kevin LaBarre (drums), Shane Forsberg (rhythm guitar).
Then, prior to Dreadful Children was a band who almost stole the entire evening. That was an almost all female goth (mostly) outfit from Seattle. Witches Titties self describe as frantic no wave witches with heartache. The band is comprised of two singers, both of whom belted and screamed out songs not from the stage, but from the dance floor. On stage were two female drummers and two women guitarists and some dude who pranced about in different costumes that included a gnarly tree, snake fingers and clad in white with a black and white checked bandana covering his entire face. Add electronic sound effects to the screaming vocals and this band takes off with something totally unique. They were part freak show, part rock band, part goth and macabre. The Witches Titties list their members as the following: Rio, Amber, Jen Gay, Kook, Christina, Steph, Adair-Hype Witches-Mister Chanel and POPS. I headed to the bar just after their set and no one could stop talking about them. I will be watching for future gigs by the Witches Titties.
Before Witches Titties was another Seattle band. This time it was a trio with a lot of hair called The Crap. The Crap, consisting of Stevie Kicks Poulin, Josh Kramer, Wayne Draves, played a fast paced more straight up rock sound with heavy punk over tones. They actually got the growing crowd to do quite a bit of moshing and though the club was far from filled at this point, I was already being bounced against the stage.
Opening the entire evening was yet another Seattle band called Sick Ward. This is a young band doing a fine job of carrying on the punk legacy and keeping it alive and well for the next generation. There was anger and intensity — all the right elements for a punk band. The force is strong in this one.
El Corazon cooked up another fine night of outstanding bands. But the aforementioned were not all we were treated to. As I left through the bar, Kids On Fire had just started a set on the small stage. Those who stuck around (and there were quite a few) were treated to a fun set of catchy, fast paced punky poppy songs. They were definitely worth hanging about for.
