Against Me! – Creepiod – Venus de Mars – at SLO Brew – San Luis Obispo, CA

Sunday the 17th of August Against Me! played an all ages show in San Luis Obispo at SLO brew, located in the heart of downtown. After attending their performance at Punk Rock Bowling this year, and loving it, I was stoked to see them play at a smaller and much more intimate venue like SLO brew.

The show opened with Venus De Mars and All the Pretty Horses, a Punk/Glam band out of Minnesota. Venus De Mars and her band all the pretty horses came dressed to kill, walking on stage in sequins, leather, glitter, fishnets, pasties. It was very clear they came to rock, quickly drawing in all the stragglers from the bar and outside. Venus, on the guitar, provided the melodic entrancing vocal sound with wild riffs that stirred up the crowd for a really fun opening act. Their grand finale gained a huge reaction with the crowd and at one point it even looked like Venus’ guitar shot out sparks! Even though their set was a short one it was very memorable.

Creepoid, an indie rock quartet out of Philadelphia, landed here on the central coast on their tour with Against Me!, and they DID NOT fail to live up to their name. Their creepy, ambient, yet fun sound was made much more enjoyable because of the bands intense energy. Creepoid is fronted by both male and female vocalists creating a unique and exciting melody for their music. The bass player's angelic vocal styling seduced the crowd and focused all eyes in the room on her while the band danced around an illuminated pot leaf on the bass drum, rocking out all the while. They finished their set by throwing their drum set and guitar on the ground and walking off stage. This bands eerie indie rock sound was well received by this San Luis crowd.

At about 10:30 Against Me walked onstage to an instrumental version of “banned from the Roxy”by crass and created a frenzy from the first note of the first song! The punk/folk quartet out of Gainesville Florida packed SLO brew full of excited and delighted fans. At one point the bass player put his guitar between his legs and preceded to hump the amp, revving up the crowd for the next song.

During their more popular songs like "I was a Teenage Anarchist" the small venue of SLO brew exploded into a sea of crowd surfing, pitting, rambunctious individuals that were loving every minute. They didn't just play their hits, the band also included a number of songs from their latest album (Transgender Dysphoria Blues) and I'll be damned if their fans in the audience didn't know every word of every song, beginning to end. They even played my favorite track off the album "Black Me Out", and I couldn’t help myself yelling "I WANNA PISS ON THE WALLS OF YOUR HOUSE!”. Against Me's beautiful lyrics and intense harmonies charmed all that came to view! Laura had a great energy while smiling and conversing with the crowd in between songs.

After they walked off stage, all of the fans started cheering for Laura and the rest of the band to return and give them one last song! To the crowds delight their set ended with screaming fans and a badass encore including “We Laugh at Danger”. Can you really ask for more than that? I think that I’m speaking for all of San Luis Obispo when I say, “Wow, now that was an awesome show! I hope they play here again soon.”

-T. Wallace-
Big Wheel Contributor

 

 

 

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