RattleHead Records - The Sound of Rhode Island

Pele

Gunshot Wound / Lemon Lime Tennis Shoes' dual cd-release party, with Visual Pollution

RI says goodbye to NK punks GSW, Lemon Lime Tennis Shoes sing songs of redemption, and Visual Pollution is really angry.


	Released: 08.23.04
	Source: The In on the What
	Author: Pele
	Original source link

August 11th was the CD release party for both highschool bands Lemon Lime Tennis Shoes and Gunshot Wound. GSW, lead by the apparently related Jon and Mike Pagano have kicked out the jams in North Kingstown since 1998. Also present were hardcore junkies Visual Pollution. This was to be a bittersweet event for GSW fans. And if you want to know why you have to read the rest of the article, fool.

Visual Pollution: "People Fucking Suck!"

Visual Pollution is a standard hardcore band featuring a guitarist, vocalist, bassist, and drummer. As usual, it became noticeable during the first few minutes of the show that bands have a hard time dealing with that damn pole that runs floor-to-ceiling, stuck right in the front and center of the stage where the singer should be. It makes for very awkward situations when the singer for any given band tries to swing around it or use it as a stage prop and ends up looking like an idiot (the sole exception is the girl who was using it to poledance at an Ill-Natured show. Hot).

Anyway, the band ran through a bunch of originals that covered maybe an hour or so. They were mostly tight, but stumbled at times. They did the kind of hardcore played by bands like the Circle Jerks and Slayer. The cookie-monster vocals, banging drums and one-note guitar thing has gotten a bit old to my ears, but the band liked it and the crowd was actually rowdier than the band. Much moshing and double-bass debauchery ensue.

Visual Pollution displayed some strange politics that night. Prefacing one particular ditty, the singer growled, "This song is about people who change their clothes to follow the trends and cut themselves to get attention..." Immediately after they banged out the song's chorus - "Attention Freak! Attention Freak!". Right. They also played a song that I think was called "People Fucking Suck". Moving on...

Lemon Lime Tennis Shoes: "Everyone say hello to Frankenstein!"

LLTS' bassist, Alex, is one of the most recognizable characters in the RI music scene. Sporting a blonde-tipped mohawk, he's the kind of person you don't have trouble finding in a place like the Living Room. On this particular day, he was also wearing a tutu. "I'm going for the Jenny Hurricane look", he said.Starting with a 12-second punk jam on Marley's "Redemption Song", the band (consisting of a guitarist / vocalist, bass / vocals, guitarist, drummer, and occasional trumpet) cut a swath through their 1.5 hour long set. Loud but melodic, LLTS has clearly been doing this for a while, and quite successfully. In a nice change from standard hard-rock bands, the vocalists actually sang rather than screeched or barked. Their stage props were no less impressive or amusing. The most noticeable was a 10-foot tall inflatable Frankenstein near the drummer. But perhaps the best part of watching the band was their attitude. When they (inevitably) got political, Alex announced, "You know, a lot have songs lately have gotten very anti-Bush, very anti-war... this is one of those. But we chose to do something different. We didn't use the word "fuck". That's right. And we actually learned quite a bit during the writing of this song." Nice, huh? They also played a punked-up cover of REM's "End of the World as We Know It" and nailed Catch -22's euphoric "Giving Up, Giving In". They also made known their love for the Aquabats with a suitably goofy cover. LLTS has a new cd out, you should buy it.

Gunshot Wound: Bloody Punk and Bitter Goodbyes

Gunshot Wound is a political punk band that has amassed a following as of late. Most of their fans turned out for this show. As the lights dimmed, the crowd swelled into the chant: "Gunshot Wound! Gunshot Wound!". The moshing began almost before the band took the stage, the poor dainty females in the front row being ground into sausage against the stage by the yahoos in the back. Frontman Mike Pagano announced almost immediately that this would be the last GSW show for "a while", (forever? The fans wondered) due to the fact that two of their members were leaving to pursue higher education.

Gunshot Wound is / was: Mike Pagano on bass and lead vocals, Jon Pagano on rhythm guitar and vocals, Keith Kopka on lead guitar, and Neil King on drums. Rocking through their set of leftist punk, the Paganos and co. looked like a cross between Leftover Crack and NOFX. Loud as any punk band should be, they also had something many punk bands curiously lack: energy. For a genre that was built on animal fury, many bands just don't have it any more. GSW do. Particularly impressive was drummer Neil King, who mixed the standard punk beats with more straight-rock and new-wave styles. At times he seemed much like the drummer from ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Each band member held up their respective end, and were very together, giving and taking visual cues all over. They played older songs, as well as selections from their new EP (Mutiny in Stereo). The two live highlights from the new record were "Bombs" and "Resistance", the latter is one of the grooviest punk songs to hit the local scene since forever. (As you may have gathered from the song titles, they are a heavily political band. If you're looking for hard-rock political comparisons, check out the Dead Kennedys or NOFX's recent album "War on Errorism".) GSW also has another strength: the Paganos are great showmen. When Keith removed his shirt about halfway through the set, he was greeted with a variety of obscene and sexual comments from the crowd. Not wanting to be left out, Mike Pagano stripped himself of his shirt and boasted a torso a bit squishier than Keith's. Didn't matter. That night, he was a sex god. Speaking of which, one couldn't help but notice the unusually high number of females present at the Living Room. Perhaps it's the tutus? Can't say why, but it certainly is encouraging. It's much more fun to go to shows when it's not just hairy guys with cans of Miller Lite and mermaid tattoos.

So the point is: if ever they come back, GSW is worth seeing. In the meantime, if you like punk and hate the president, see if you can find a copy of "Mutiny in Stereo".

Pele out.

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