Me First And The Gimme Gimmes is just one of those bands that everyone loves. You can't say to yourself, "they have no talent and they need to write their own material." Me first is everybody's favorite punk rock cover band. Period. In fact, I don't even know of any others. When I heard that the gimmes would be headlining the edge's "gimme gimme Christmas show" (local alternative radio station) I knew I had to go. After all, How many opportunities do you get to even see the gimme gimmes?
The show began promptly at 7 o' clock at Nita's Hideaway. The venue is pretty large, and in all my shows I've seen there, it had never been this packed before. The first band up was Fourbanger.
Fourbanger is a local band that kind of has a Millencolin sound goin' for them. The only thing missing is the Swedish accent. After 30 minutes smooth punk rock the local heroes were done. I'm not that big of a local music scenester but these guys were pretty talented.
Spindle was up next, another local band; but I'd never heard of them before. When you're a local band opening for national acts, there are a few important things to remember: you don't have much time, not many people are there to see you, your main purpose is to get the crowd going. Spindle was smart enough to know all of these things. They didn't waste there time ranting and raving on stage. Instead they played a half hour set wasting little time between songs. They ALMOST sounded like Bad Religion; they had some really fast and really heavy riffs thrown in the mix. They got the crowd going so I can't complain.
Up next on the bill was Denver Harbor. For those of you who don't know, DH came to be after the break up of Fenix Tx. It contains former lead singer Will Salazar at guitar and vocals, Adam Lewis, also of Fenix Tx is also on guitar, and two guys (brothers I think) from a band called F.O.N. but I'm not to positive on that. I was always a huge fan of Fenix Tx, but never got the opportunity to see them play, this was almost as good. Denver Harbor sounds a lot like Fenix Tx. Denver Harbor is a high energy live band that puts on a great show. Their 15 year old drummer is one of the most amazing drummers I've ever had the privilege to see and he had a great solo half way through their set. I bought their new e.p. after the show and it is very good. Their set list highlights were: Threesome (yes, the same one from Fenix Tx), Pop Manifesto, Outta my head, Way back home, and Satisfied. If you were a fan of Fenix Tx, you will LOVE Denver Harbor.
Sugarcult was the next band to play. This is my second time seeing them (not intentionally). I'm not a big fan of Sugarcult, so I won't waste too much time talking about them. Their set list included: Bouncing off the walls (again), Stuck in America, and a bunch of other songs that sounded exactly the same.
Finally, it was time for the Gimme Gimmes to play. I had no idea what to expect, according to their website, this would be their first show since August and I had a feeling they might be rusty. I was wrong. After 25 minutes of waiting, the punk rock cover gods went on stage in some spiffy pajamas. The 5 man rainbow coalition blasted into Danny's Song, and from that point on, the hits never stopped. Fat Mike can still play bass, Chris and Joey can still play guitar, Spike can still sing, and Dave can still play drums. The boys played songs from all four of their major releases including: Danny's Song, Rocket man, Leaving on a jet plane, Me and Julio down by the school yard, Seasons in the sun, Nobody does it better, Summer time, Over the rainbow, Science Fiction Double Feature, Phantom of the Opera, Don't cry for me Argentina, Sloop John B, I believe I can fly, Country Roads, a nasty cover of Stairway to Heaven, Feliz Navidad (where half way through the song Fat Mike interrupted and said he was offended on behalf of the Jewish community, and for the rest of the song Spike sang: Hava N'agilaâ¦I wanna wish you a happy Rosh Hashanah, which was cool because I'm jewish too) and many more. If you ever have the chance to see these guys, do it! You won't regret it.