Punk Rock Bowling festival September 2021 `

 Well, I didn't take notes and barely took any pictures cuz we were busy in general and kinda running around simultaneously and didn't really see any full day, but here's a few impressions from PRB this year.

We ended up getting in for part of Saturday but due to Melanie's work schedule we only got to see Plague Vendor, even though we wanted to check out more (we were bummed to miss the Circle Jerks). Mel had heard good things about them and they put on a great set of kinda post-punk minimalism with a dash of the Fluid's punk'n'roll and a terrifically manic frontman who was continually being held back by the bouncers, for some reason. He kept jumping out into the audience though, and was very good at his interaction with the crowd, despite being directly in the blazing, mid-day sun. The bassist had a monstrous, growly tone through the house SVT that pretty much carried the songs, while the guitarist added some wiry riffage on top and the drums held it all together. A truly fab live combo - glad we were able to see them!

Sunday was the day that we had tickets to go anyway and got there early to see the acoustic act, the Bridge City Sinners. With a female crooner/banjolele frontwoman backed by stand-up bass, dobro, fiddle and "regular" banjo, they performed punkily energetic takes on old-timey styled music. A number of folks were there for them and many even sang along to their tunes and bopped to the beat. I know that plenty of peeps are doing the 20's/30's-ish style of music these days, but the Sinners add a lyrical dimension of devilish glee, filled with evil intent. The singer goes into kind of a death metal growl a little too often, but that's a minor complaint - well worth checking out.

Of course, I've ranted'n'raved about San Diego's incredible Schizophonics numerous times here on my blog and on this day they were featured on the main stage at the early hour of 4:00, which meant that the band along with a good portion of the audience was scorched by the mid-day sun. That had the crowd moving a bit to stay in the shade but it didn't stop singer/guitarist Pat from leapin', fruggin', somersaultin', splittin' and generally acting like a human pinball for the duration of their set. He amazed the crowd by basically playing guitair with one hand while he flails about non-stop and even losing his strap didn't slow him down! He's not adverse to putting his guitar down just long enough to do a James Brown dance move, then pick it up right on beat and continue on with the song. He managed to leap across the barriers into the audience and got everyone to dance along with him and shout'n'shimmy'n'get down on their knees with him before he lept back up and finished out the finale. Drummer Lety is an amazing time-keeper - and looks great while doing it! - and their current bassist (they've gone through a few over the years) kept the fuzz bass rumbling throughout. They never disappoint and they definitely won some new fans with this wild set. The sound in front could have been a bit better, but unfortunately, that happens with the early bands on these kind of bills.

We took a dinner break during MDC's set, which led into All's time, as well - although All sounded pretty damn strong and far more interesting'n'varied than many of the melodic punk/hardcore groups around these days - but we made sure to catch the Riverboat Gamblers set. While I didn't care for the singer's current hippie-length hair, beard and dress sense, he was still another non-stop, wildman up front while the band was a tight rockin' machine behind him. - although we think it was at least a somewhat different line up than the last couple times we saw them. They had some young girl (like 10-ish young) come up and sing an entire song with them, as well as an older, mohawked musician for some punk-rock cover that I didn't recognize. Still a blast, but not quite as phenomenal as the last couple of times we saw them.

We socialized during the Murder City Devils - who sounded pretty good with a keyboard player adding a bit of a difference to the sound - then I checked out during the English Beat as I do not care for ska, the Lunachicks were rockin' but they're not my particular cup of hemlock, we talked with old friends during Municipal Waste, which we knew nothing about, and then came the finale with Devo!

Amazingly, it's already been 8 years since the last time Devo headlined PRB but, if anything, they were even better this time out! Once again, they had an opening video and throughout their set, the live music was perfectly synced up to their fantastic lightshow/video display - not an easy feat! Multiple costume changes enhanced the show, with their MTV hits placed in the middle of the set followed by the crowd faves, their songs from their first two records. Superb musicianship throughout, especially from drummer John Freese, and even though the videos dwarfed the group, they were still animated and fun on stage. Tons of people cite this as by far the best set of the fest - make sure you see them if you can!

I wish that we had had the time to do more, but between other obligations and the upper 90 degree heat, there was only so much that we could do. But, it was a fun time for socializing as well as rockin'!