I’ll be honest: if I had to pick a venue for my first-ever Punk Rock Bowling club show (I just turned 21 in January- I know, I know, I’m a baby), Place on 7th wouldn’t have even made the list of possibilities. Place on 7th markets itself as a spot for wedding receptions and corporate lunches, not ska gigs. Upon seeing a poster for monthly country nights on the outside walls as I waited in line, I wondered who the hell booked this place?
It didn’t help that security was rather slow. Coupled with the show actually starting on time, I ended up missing the first 15 minutes of The Steady 45’s set, despite showing up to the venue early. Upon finally entering Place on 7th, though, I immediately changed my mind. Mystery booker, I’m sorry for doubting you. The venue’s pairing of a roof over the bar and open air over the stage made for a great layout. Also, it had the nicest restrooms I’ve ever peed in during a show, so props for that.
That said, I’m still a little bummed that I missed any of The Steady 45’s set, as the 7-piece band ended up completely stealing my heart with songs like “So Long” and “No No No,” along with some pretty sweet dance moves from the horn and keyboard section. I definitely wasn’t alone in my enjoyment – quite a few members of the crowd were swaying and singing along, and I even saw a dude in a cowboy hat square-dancing. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised since it was a PRB club show… but as a rude kid raised on DIY house shows, it’s not terribly often that I get out to shows where even the “headliners” have a crowd that compares to the one that came out for The Steady 45’s that night. A few days later, I’m still trying to figure out how the voice of a deep South church singer came out of main vocalist Joe Quinones, who made his way into the crowd for gang vocals as the perfect end to their set.
The Aggrolites were up next, and at this point in the show, there were enough people to make the crowd more tightly packed, and those who’d been there for The Steady 45’s were sufficiently tipsy enough to dance without reservation. Unpopular opinion: The Aggrolites are a little too reggae-heavy (sorry, dirty reggae) for my ska-punk tastes. That didn’t stop me, however, from skanking along, especially to my favorite song of theirs, “Love Isn’t Love.” Of course, they had to perform a cover of Jamaican star Delroy Wilson’s “Once Upon a Time.” By the end of their set, even I couldn’t deny the quality of The Aggrolites’ musicianship, which makes sense as they’ve been at it for awhile.
Speaking of bands who’ve been at it for awhile… Fishbone, having been formed in 1979, was easily older than a good chunk of the audience. I don’t only mean the individual members – the band itself is, for example, almost two decades older than myself, though to be fair I was one of the youngest people there. Don’t take that as a dig at Fishbone, though – the band brought so much energy and fun, and when they got onstage a slightly drunken Julien couldn’t help but repeat, “They look fresh AF! Damn!” a few times. “Bonin’ in the Boneyard” finally earned the pit I’d been dying for all night, which frontman Angelo Moore found his way into.
My notes for Fishbone are admittedly short, as I was in the pit, dancing with strangers, or crushed up against the divider for most of their set. Still, I certainly won’t forget how, to put it simply, fun it was to hear Fishbone classics like “Ma and Pa” and “Skankin’ to the Beat” live. They brought a much more active crowd than I expected, considering it took a bit of time for the show to sell out. I guess not everyone who wanted tickets could go, though – there were a few observers on the top level of the parking complex across the street.
Fishbone closed out their set with “Party at Ground Zero” and Moore traded out both the sax and singing for a clarinet, an action that had my clarinet-playing roommate hype as hell. Said roommate was equally hype to shake Moore’s hand at their merch table, which was swarmed with multiple lines of Fishbone fans vying to buy t-shirts and meet members of the band.
Call me corny as hell, but May 25th was a night I’d been waiting literal years for- after countless shows missed due to being out of town or simply not old enough to get past security, I was more than pleased with both the actual music and the camaraderie of the crowd at my first PRB club show.
-Julien Boulton
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