In this unusually ugly and hot summer, we have had occasional gemlike days in the 70s. One of these happened to be Thursday, July 1. I had dinner plans with some relatives, but things happened to work out that I was done in time to head to Fort Reno. It was such a nice night that I biked up from downtown, met up with a friend under a tree, and watched the bands. I didn’t really know anything about them in advance, though I had glanced at the info on their respective myspace pages.
First up was a young group called Gangland Buries Its Own — they were actually playing when I got there, but I would guess that I saw most of their set. Good band, I liked them. Sort of an artsy post-hardcore sound, not really anything I haven’t heard before, but with screaming female vocals. Typing this up, I am tempted to download their album but it seems sort of expensive, $10 at CDBaby. They need to get on the bandcamp bandwagon, I would buy it for like 4 or 5. I’ll think about it.
I found some flickr photos from the show, here is Gangland, borrowed from flickr user dalesun:
The headliners were Sleeper Agent! — they discussed how there was another band out there called Sleeper Agent, so theirs is the one with the exclamation point. This band featured John Stabb (from ’80s DC punk band Government Issue) and I feel like such a bad excuse for a scenester because I thought John Stabb had died a few years ago but actually he was just badly injured in an assault and clearly still alive. Anyway I have listened to GI before and it is ok, but not something I get all excited about.
Sleeper Agent! were pretty fun to listen to, though. It wasn’t particularly punk, more like old post-punk or new wave, a la the B-52s. The friend I went with also commented that it sounded a lot like The Fall and I can’t disagree with that.
The show was a little sloppy, with rambling conversations from Mr. “Not Dead” Stabb, but fun to sit and listen to on a rare pretty evening. Totally gemlike.
Here’s a photo of Sleeper Agent!, also borrowed from flickr user dalesun:
