CITIZINE REVIEWS
Punk rock showcase storms SXSW

By Thom White

Saturday, March 15, 2008
Red 7 -- 611 E. 7th St.
Austin, Tex.

Things are pretty punk rock at Red 7, and among the many sorts of disorder and anarchy witnessed there, on many occasions, I’ve been shocked to see patrons brazenly smoking cigarettes in the indoor area (completely illegal per Austin’s health nazi regulations). But things are set to get even more out of control ‘cause during SXSW, Red 7 will host a veritable “punk rock extravaganza” (I didn’t invent that term, but it applies here) on Saturday, March 15th, with a big show presented by two record labels (TKO and Hellcat) and two booking agencies (Devil Dolls and Crawlspace).

Four of the bands playing have put out releases on TKO Records. California’s Channel 3 is one of the “old-school” bands playing at this show. CH3 is not from the first wave of L.A. punk, but soon after learning how to write their own songs, they were fortunate enough to have Robbie Fields, owner of Posh Boy Records, bankroll their self-titled EP in 1981 (this before the band had done a single live show at a club!). They followed this up with an LP in 1982 and several other records on Posh Boy over the next few years. By 1985, “punk was dead” for CH3 and the band moved in a different direction, and began to employ non-punk instrumentation. Nowadays, Channel 3 has again embraced their early punk tuneage, and in the ‘00s, they find themselves “curiously playing to bigger crowds than ever.”

Although I long only knew Channel 3’s hometown of Cerritos as the site of the well-advertised Cerritos Auto Square, you can learn a lot when you read a band’s bio. A “gateway community” located near the San Gabriel River south of Los Angeles, and on the fringes between Long Beach and Orange County, Cerritos was long known for its dairy farms (after incorporating, the town was actually called “Dairy Valley” from 1956-1967). The period when the founders of CH3 became good childhood friends (around 1980) was a tipping point for Cerritos, as the drive toward corporate / suburban / industrial development displaced the last vestiges of productive rural living there. 7-11’s and strip malls replaced cow pastures, and the smell of asphalt replaced the sweet scent of manure. Ah, “progress.”

The other three TKO bands playing are based here in Austin. Our own Lower Class Brats is co-headlining this show with the punkers Horror Pops and psychobilly maestros The Nekromantix (both bands out of Denmark). Lower Class Brats are totally punked out, and have been so since 1995. They’ve put out eight 7” singles (and if Sound Exchange was still open (R.I.P.), you’d be able to pick ‘em all up there, no problem -- nowadays, it’s best to head to Cheapo Records), along with five albums (the first few on Punkcore Records) and one live album (2007’s Live and Out of Tune on TKO). After South-By, Lower Class Brats is heading out on the road for an extended tour of California opening for the Nekromantix.

“Texican” punks the Krum Bums will be playing this show too. They put out a record last year on TKO entitled As the Tide Turns. Although they’re based in Austin, this year the Krum Bums are definitely a traveling band. In late March, they’re doing a “mini-tour” of Texas with The Unseen, and then they have an early-summer tour lined up opening for The Casualties that will take them through the Midwest and the Southeast.

Austin’s Complete Control is also on the bill and from what I’ve heard so far, these guys have a pretty tight sound, and the singer has a prominent resonation to his voice that makes me want to bust out with some hearty Misfits “Whoa-ahh-ohhs!” I’m not sure what time these guys are playing, but it’d be worth it to show up early to check out Complete Control. Their sound is reminiscent of some other bands, but with the “on point” drums and guitar, these guys have it together.

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