The Queers as we know them today started out in earnest way back in 1986. With Joe King on vocals and guitar, they put out several albums on Lookout Records and were one of most important bands of 90’s pop-punk. The New Hampshire band actually existed before that. From 1981 to 1984 they featured King on guitar and a guy named Wimpy Rutherford singing. (He also sang a few songs on the ill fated 2000 Queers album Beyond the Valley on Hopeless Records.) The older Queers material was edgier and more straight up punk than the later stuff. I would compare them to bands like The Meatmen, The Dwarves or maybe Fear. There was an album on Lookout called A Day Late and a Dollar Short (1996) that compiled lots of their earliest recordings.
Until about a decade ago, King still included a handful of early songs in any given Queers live set. Nowadays, his constantly changing backup band makes it difficult to play many deep cuts. The current live show consists mostly of tunes from Love Songs for the Retarded (1993) and a few other greatest hits. I was excited when I heard that Rutherford was going to tour with fellow New Hampshire natives The Cryptics and play those old songs again. They were actually touring to support a live album called Wimpy Rutherford and The Cryptics Live @ The Brickhouse that came out at the very end of 2016. The show was supposed to be a Sunday matinee on March 19th at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar and Grill on the west edge of downtown Grand Rapids.
A new local band was debuting at this show, and I was looking forward to checking them out too. Paper Thin is yet another band made up of Kole and Taylor, formerly of The Lippies and currently of The Bloody Lips. When The Lippies broke up, I joked that it would be the end of my punk journalism career. I had intended to hitch my wagon to their rising star and ride it all the way to the top. (Where the big money is.) The truth is, I was running out of things to say about that band and covering the spin off projects (3 and counting) has really taken on a life of its own. (Tonia also still does her solo stuff under the name Tonia Bug, but it’s not at all punk and I went with Kole and Taylor in the divorce.)
The show was supposed to start at 3pm, but I wasn’t too concerned when we showed up 20 minutes late and no one was playing yet. (You know, punk time.) When we’d been there an hour and I’d still seen no sign of Wimpy and the boys, I started to smell a problem. It was almost 5pm when the announcement was made that Wimpy was running way behind and probably wasn’t going to make it to Grand Rapids. We were promised our money back ($10) and assured that the other band was still going to play.
A few minutes later, Paper Thin took the stage. The GR based quintet is once again female fronted, so let’s make the inevitable comparisons. They are more classic punk and less poppy than The Lippies. They are slower and less hostile than The Bloody Lips. I would compare them to Avengers, X-Ray Spex and Buzzcocks. Their handful of songs were well written, and the second guitar gave them a little wider dynamic range than the previously mentioned bands. I enjoyed Paper Thin’s short set, and think they have a lot of promise. I look forward to watching them progress. These 15 minutes of live music were all I would hear on this day.
Before the internet and cell phones, bands unexpectedly missed shows much more frequently. In this age of constant communication, it has gotten to be pretty rare. I never did hear what the issue was, and I’m inclined to give the band the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they had some kind of problem. Maybe there was a misunderstanding about the start time. They had played in Detroit the night before, which is less than a three hour drive. I was a little bummed not to hear “Kicked Out of the Webelos”, “This Place Sucks”, “Tulu is a Wimp” or “Wimpy Drives Through Harlem”, but we still ended up having a pretty good time. The sun was shining through the windows and brought the promise of Spring. The NCAA tournament was on the bar’s couple of TV’s for those of us watching our brackets. The beer was cold and cheap, and there was plenty of good conversation. There was a wonderful ‘fellowship of kindred minds’. The older I get, the more I realize that that’s as important as the music.
*I later Heard that Wimpy Rutherford and The Cryptics finally arrived at 6:30, an hour after most of us had left. They claimed to not have known that the show was a matinee. I give Paper Thin 3.5/5 stars and the no shows 0.5/5 stars. The half a star is simply for the enjoyment I got revisiting those old Queers songs. The average is obviously 2 out of 5.*