Live: Insubordination Fest - day two

Day two (or three, if you count the Thursday pre-show) is always the marathon day at Insubordination Fest. Things start early and go late. It's at these junctures where one finds how one can handle the permissive PBR promotions Sonar always drums up for the affair. Having unwisely opted for much wine with Keith the night before, I was more than a little bit damaged by the time I started the day.

Having missed the mighty Banner Pilot the night before, there was no way I was going to catch an o-fer and miss Gateway District. BP mastermind Nate Ganglehoff also tenures in the band, along with Half-Pint from Rivethead/Dear Landlord, Maren from the Soviettes and Carrie from The Salteens. Things were a little shaky, but I thought they were pretty great, even if they played in front of a half-filled room. I haven't had a chance to listen to their new full-length on It's Alive, but it sounds like it's worth checking out. Review soon!

Lemuria were up next. It was the last date of their tour, but the kids hardly mailed it in. Only a twenty minute set, but a damn good one. I didn't get a chance to speak to them to see what the next move is for the crew, as the last record's been out for a bit, but I trust there will be new material soon. I caught the end of the Full Of Fancy set after they wrapped. They are a nice match with the Lemuria. I like those kids more and more. The ladies can sing and the band is tight. I need to get me that record soon.

More Dear Landlord was next. Those guys are so great. Buy the DL records as well as all their other/previous bands records immediately. Sell a Vampire Weekend record or something. They played pretty much all their songs, and had Carrie from Gateway District come out and sing the cover from Dream Homes to sweeten the pot further. So good. The gents are real busy, so go out of your way and see them as soon/much as possible while you can.

I killed time before The Measure (SA) set by catching part of Wimpy from The Queers solo set. He was backed by The Secretions, but that wasn't enough to sway me into listening to more than a song or two. Guess I'm not a Queers fan. So sue me. The Measure were good, though. The guitar player that needs to get canned was still pretty annoying, and evidently drunk and/or on pills, but the rest of the band stepped up nicely. At one point, Drunk stupid tattoo guy mentioned off-handedly that the band wouldn't be playing much while Lauren dealt with some personal issues. Here's hoping that they are handled swiftly and healthily and perhaps revolve around some staffing changes in the Measure (SA) franchise.

Had some time to kill after, so I grabbed an iced coffee and an issue of Go Metric! and relaxed a bit before catching The Arrivals. I hadn't ever intentionally seen The Arrivals and was damn anxious to rectify the situation. Met some lovely female Fastbacks fans beforehand and chatted while the gents set up, then proceeded to lose my shit for the duration of their far-too-short set. The sheer barrage of hits, combined with the knee-weakeningly lovely Hallie Unlovable dancing next to me, made for the set of IF for this guy. I hear that there may be some East Coast shows toward the end of the summer, which makes this shut-in way happy. Great songs, great people. Buy them drinks.

I caught a bit of The Adorkables afterward, but opted for a drink and some sun before local heroes Dead Mechanical took the stage. No lineup changes since the last time I saw them, which is somewhat notable. The newest 12" on Toxic Pop is still getting shine. If you like the first couple of Jawbreaker records, the gents are well worth checking out. They seemed to get a local of local and out-of-town love. Here's hoping they get back up to NYC real soon. I saw a bit of The Parasites beforehand. They sounded decent, but I think I prefer Dave backed by Ergs.

Got back to the main room to see the last couple minutes of The Methadones levelling the room with their pop-punk chestnuts. If you liked Danny's tenure in the Screeching Weasel, you would do well to snap their stuff up post-haste. If you're unfamiliar, you could do a lot worse to start than the split EP with The Copyrights. Toys That Kill were up next, and awesome. They are another band I never had seen live. I had hoped that I wouldn't be as disappointed as I was with Underground Railroad To Candyland and luckily I wasn't. Good, fast, hooky punk rock that had all the old heads in the crowd way happy. I though TTK were no longer a band, but if you can see them in this day and age, I assure you that you should.

TTK were the last band of Insubordination Fest for this asshole, as there was a pretty big void in stuff I wanted to hear and it was easily three hours before Dillinger were going on, so I bailed to be fresh for rehearsal next day. I'm sure D4 were great, but I've seen a lot of them. Even with my not seeing any of the headliners and missing Banner Pilot, Insubordination Fest 2009 was a great time. I can't see not going again next year.

R