Guttermouth/The Cryptics/Murder Party!

Live in Grand Rapids (2016)

TomTrauma

Guttermouth has a bit of a history with the city of Grand Rapids. As a matter of fact, their first show here is the stuff of legend. Way back in 1994, the owner of a local record store (RIP Radio Kilroy) was booking Epitaph bands to play at the Polish Falcon hall on the West side of town. (SNFU and NOFX
were two of the highlights of the year for me as a youngster.) One of the acts he booked was an up-and-coming but still relatively unknown band called The Offspring. In the couple of months between when the show was booked and when it actually took place, something unexpected happened. The Offspring blew up. Huge. We’re talking platinum record and “Come Out and Play” and “Self-Esteem” on the radio every five minutes. To The Offspring’s credit, they played those smaller, previously scheduled shows. The opener for (at least part of) that our was Guttermouth. A lot of people (myself included) will tell you that Guttermouth stole the show that night. To finish the story, that show drew a huge (and different) crowd, the place got trashed, and it was the last show of its kind at the venue.

A couple of years ago, Guttermouth (that is to say singer Mark Adkins and some other dudes) showed back up in GR. They co-headlined with Agent Orange for (maybe) 200 people at The Pyramid Scheme. I can’t really tell you if they were any good because I ran into an old friend and talked to him the whole time they played. The next year they came back and played for far fewer people at the same venue. (I missed it.) Another year has passed, and now they find themselves playing at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar and Grill. I don’t mean to disparage the venue, as I like it quite a bit. It’s a kitschy Americana type place and I’ve seen some great shows there. It’s also very intimate with a capacity of about 120. Guttermouth certainly seems to be on a Spinal Tap-esqe career arc. (Next year they’ll be playing in my basement.) I planned to keep an open mind, but it was definitely morbid curiosity that got me off the couch on a chilly Tuesday night on February 23rd.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the show was starting at 7:00. I showed up in time to catch most of Murder Party!’s 40 minute set. There weren’t many people there yet, and I was suspecting the show might be a bust. Murder Party! is a local favorite that has worked themselves into the enviable position
of opening for quite a few cool national headliners over the last couple of years. The horror-punk trio mixed a couple of new songs into their set, and even threw in a couple covers. Maybe they were inspired by the retro vibe, but “Do You Wanna Dance” (Bobby Freeman and later the Ramones) and “Oh, Boy” (Buddy Holly) were nice additions. Murder Party! were a little sloppy and a lot of fun.

Next up was The Cryptics, another trio, this time from Dover, New Hampshire. These three young guys (in their early and mid 20’s) play unpretentious, straight ahead punk rock. The Cryptics are a well oiled machine and tore through their half hour set with very little fanfare. At times, only one or two of us were standing near the stage, but the mellow, older crowd seemed to enjoy it. It’s nice to see some younger guys playing a more ‘orthodox’ style of punk instead of whining about friendship and whiskey. I will definitely check them out further.

Guttermouth eventually got started after what felt like a pretty long break. By now, the crowd had swelled quite a bit and the joint was probably ⅔ full. The band’s line-up seemed to be the same as the last couple trips to town, and the five of them could barely fit on the tiny corner stage, especially when Mark started throwing himself around. Speaking of Mark, he had a curly, old-timey villain mustache drawn on his face with a magic marker. The show had all the Guttermouth essentials. There was tons of screwing around, crude humor and sexual innuendo. I must admit, I found myself laughing more than once. (I blame the fact that I didn’t stick to my original plan of only one PBR tallboy per band.) They also teased the crowd with snippets of several songs by other (more popular) bands including Everclear’s “Santa Monica”, Green Day’s “When I Come Around”, Judas Priest’s “Turbo Lover” and Motley Crue’s “Shout at the Devil”.

If you were a big Guttermouth fan, this was pretty much a dream show. You could walk right up to the one foot high stage and interact with the band. It turns out that Murder Party! bassist Chubby (he’s not really chubby) is a huge GM enthusiast. He sang an outstanding version of “Whiskey” with the band while Mark went to the bar. Afterwards, one of the guitarists quipped, “So that’s what it’s like to play with a good singer”. Later Chubby rejoined the band and he and Mark did “Baker’s Dozen” as a duet. “I wanna be unusual/I wanna be punk rock”.
The only way it could have better is if they had stared longingly into each other's eyes. Inside of every grown-ass man, there’s a ten year old boy who thinks that poop and balls are funny. It’s good to know that Guttermouth is still there for us.