D.O.A.

Live In Tampa (2014)

Sqautmaster2000

D.O.A. is one of the most legendary Canadian hardcore bands out there. They were one of the first bands to turn me onto punk. After decades of putting out material and playing all around the world, for the first time in decades, they returned to Florida for a short mini-tour of Florida as part of their “Farewell Tour” and ended up playing the Brass Mug in Tampa, Florida, the perfect setting for my first punk concert.

Before D.O.A. went on 5 awesome local bands played in which I’ll briefly sum each up.

First was Skare Tatiks which was surf-influenced hardcore and the band stood out because the vocalist/guitarist had a curly blue Mohawk, wore a dress, and had a jean jacket with a sideways Dead Kennedy’s logo saying “Picnic Table” and the bassist had gray cartoonish square goggles. Along with their wacky outfits the band not only played energetic punk but also were energetic themselves as they flung themselves around and at the end of their set threw themselves at each other and all fell down.

Next were the Abortion Twins, which were a crossover thrash band with a crude (but good) sense of humor you’d expect from a band called the Abortion Twins. They played a pretty tight set and interacted with the crowd a lot by spitting and pouring beer on them and letting them sing parts of their songs.

Then Mosquito Teeth came on and played a mixture between skate punk and hardcore (think of RKL or Ribbed-era NOFX). They played with an amazing amount of energy as the lead singer rolled across the floor like Sonic the Hedgehog and managed to strip from his clothes down to underwear within their short set. He also interacted with the audience a lot by asking them questions and messing with them (including calling me out for the fact that I wore a Minor Threat “Bottled Violence” shirt and making a comment about Straight Edge).

Then Rushmore played. They’re a melodic hardcore band, which were pretty good. For the most part they got up on stage and just played and were the calmest band of the night. However though they still were a pretty good band and still managed to thrash a fair bit.

I should also add that in between each set, Whiskey Faithful; a folk punk musician; would play two or three songs. His voice was amazing, rough but deep and warm.

Then D.O.A. got up and played. Joey, who had been at the merch table for most of the night, was a lot taller than I imagined and looked pretty well for his age. They started their set with “I Hate You” off of their classic War On 45 record and despite being around for 36 years they still were filled with energy and still sounded like they did all those decades ago. Their set was focused a lot more on their classics from the '80s such as “Police Brutality,” “Waiting For You” and “Fucked Up Ronnie” (dedicating it to Ronald Reagan’s death as day before had been the tenth anniversary of his death) but they also threw in two or three newer songs from their recent work. Unfortunately the sound system at the Brass Mug isn’t that great and the vocals were sort of fuzzy which didn’t do the band justice. About a third through their set though a drunk who had been annoying bands threw a beer can at the band and managed to hit the bassist right in the temple stopping the bassist mid-song as he threw the can back and attempted to yell at him. The drunk proceeded to throw the can back, yet again, prompting them to finish the song up a bit early so Joey could yell at him and tell him to knock it off and tell everyone in general that they do not tolerate things being thrown at them. However though it was just more than the band that was angry as for a couple of people surrounding him pushed him around and a big skinhead guy went over and punched him a few times. The band proceeded to play on the rest of the set and ended on “The Prisoner”. After a minute or two they came back for encore bursting out into their theme song (“D.O.A.”) and played one other song and just before they decided to go off, they played “Fucked Up Ronnie” one more time in honor of Reagan’s death.

Overall it was an amazing concert and while some of the audience didn’t behave well and the sound system wasn’t up to par, it was still and awesome show showing how well the legends of hardcore can be and as well as the local acts.