Despite many people's reactions to Guttermouth, I absolutely love them. They put on a good show, and have this rhythm to their music that just gets me going. Past that, I have no idea why, but they're one of my favorite bands. When I heard they were playing on a Thursday night here in Houston, at the legendary Fitzgerald's, I nearly shit myself. I then learned who was supporting them - Nerf Herder and Authority Zero, and I did. Well, not really, but I was excited. I immediately asked for the day off, saying that I had a dentists' appointment, got some money, and found a ride.
The day of the concert came along, and I found out just how good the concert was to be. You see, for me, when it's going to be a good concert, I have a bad day, and when it's gonna be a bad concert I have a REALLY good day. Well, Thursday sucked ass. I was in a good mood, because I was going to go see a show, that is, until I busted my ass. HARDCORE. In front of around 200 people at my school. Embarrassing to say the least, plus I think I dislocated my shoulder. I then proceeded to walk it off and go get some lunch; come to find out, my wallet was gone. $23,my driver's license, SSC, pictures ,Blockbuster card, GONE. I then got 2 hours of d-hall for being 16 minutes late to class. I figured this had better be a good show. It was.
We found the club with little effort, and got in what I thought was going to be a long line, but it only took 4 minutes to get to the door. We paid the 12 bucks to get in, and then went upstairs where Guttermouth, Nerf Herder, Authority Zero, and 1208 were to play. We also checked out the downstairs schedule just to be sure where we wanted to be when. Since me and my friend had either not heard of, or didn't want to see any of the downstairs bands, we decided to stay upstairs for the remainder of the show. For those of you who care, the downstairs bands were Bemus, Anyone, and 8 Stops 7 - anyone remember them ?(Question Everything)
Anyways, I headed upstairs to peruse the merchandise, and found to my dismay that Authority Zero had nothing but girls' shirts, Cds ,and stickers. They had played a hometown date in Phoenix earlier in the week, and were going to get more merch the next day. No biggie, I just hung out with the drummer for a while, and learned that they had been around for about 8 years, and are planning a tour with Homegrown for January, I can't wait. I then bought, or was given, some stickers, buttons, shirts, a CD, and some posters from the various bands there. I then found a good spot to check out 1208,the opening band, from. I had, up until then, expected nothing from them, as their songs didn't really interest me. Boy was I amazed. They absolutely blew me away, getting the, as of then, small crowd into their set. I couldn't tell you any songs they played but "Lies That Lie", but they put on a killer live show, go see them if they come to your area. Next up was Authority Zero, blending ska, reggae, punk, rap, and straight up rock, they are easily becoming one of my favorite bands EVER. They opened their energetic set with some song I don't know,then flew into "Passing the Time".They then got the drummer of 1208 to come out and call the crowd a bunch of pussies,because the pit consisted of primarily one guy who,according to the singer of Guttermouth,"Ought to be at the Misfits show" (The Misfits were playing at another club that night) They then played almost every track off of the CD A Passage In Time including "Sky's the Limit","One More Minute",and "Superbitch". When they got off stage,I went over to their "booth"(a trunk with their merch)and got the lead singer and guitarist to sign my backpack(which I carry everywhere).The lead singer drew the AZ logo on it,I think that's pretty cool,just thought you people should know.I then went to the front of the stage to await Nerf Herder.At the time,I wasn't big on them,but my friend Andrew has some of their Cds,and thought of them as pretty cool;after this show,so do I.They put on a killer show playing songs like "Sorry" and "High School".They had great crowd interaction too,going so far as to have some HUGE fan of theirs come up and sing,even though he was terrible.
After their set,I looked around and realized that Fitzgerald's was now near capacity with near 600 people there,and this made me very excited,as there was a string of shows earlier this year in which there were less and less people there as it got later.Weird.Anywaysâ¦I noticed that there were some ex-crowd members on the stage now,and I found this interesting,so I went to the stage door,and attempted to go onto the side of the stage,fully expecting some random roadie to come tell me to leave,but none did.It finally dawned on me that no one cared where I was,just long as I didn't fuck up the band,so I stayed. I ended up watching the show surrounded by the drummer for Authority Zero, the guitarist for Nerf Herder,the roadie for Guttermouth,and the drummer for 1208,can't get much cooler than that.
As the members of Guttermouth took the stage one by one,starting with the new bassist I noticed the set list taped to the wall on my right,so I looked it over to get an idea of what they were going to play,and was barely disappointed.Except for "I'm Punk","My Girlfriend",and "I'm Destroying the World" most of my favorites were there.They played "BBQ" to start off with,then went into "Secure Horizons", "Lipstick", "Can I Borrow Some Ambition", "She's Got the Look", and "Scholarship in Punk" among others. They didn't stick to the set list though, they ended up playing crowd suggestions, so long as the bassist knew the song. (the roadie-Dusty(?)told me that the bassist didn't know "My Girlfriend" and "I'm Destroying the World") As usual their singer was plastered, and he put on a good show, funny huh ? He was making fun of the crowd, as usual, and went so far as to tell one chick that "It's bitches like you who are the reason I'm single, have no kids, and am gonna stay that way"
All in all this was a good show. What am saying ?!?! All in all this was one of the best shows I've seen ever !! I recommend that everyone go see this if it comes to your town, and hang out with the guys from Authority Zero, they're cool as hell.