Once in a great while along comes a great punk show that will go down in lore for years to come among punker circles.  Unfortunately this wasn’t one.  Among the things lacking at this show were raw talent, throngs of dirty, greasy punkers, ample cheap booze, and in one instance, a bassist.  By no means though was the show all bad.  The last two bands totally made the stage their bitch.

            In the wake of a series of unfortunate events I was once again going to be late to another Mad Again show.  I arrive shortly after the second band took the stage.  Their name was Manifest Dysentery.  Their name slipped me until I stole the above flyer off of the Mad Again web site, but to be perfectly honest they really weren’t much worth remembering.  In fact they weren’t technically a band at all.  From what I gathered, they actually called it quits a month previously.  To add insult to injury the bassist failed to show to this not so glorious reunion.  Another thing lacking was a guitar.  Not that he wasn’t there, but it seemed to me that his amp wasn’t  turned up loud enough.  In the end I suppose it is wrong to be overly critical, after all they were playing based on one practice since they called it quits.

            Backtrack now to the beginning of the night when everyone else showed up.  The Gas Cap Bandits were surprisingly the first band to take to the stage.  Although I was not at the show yet, my modest buddy Andy tells me they played an alright, but in no means not their best set.

            Next on the roster was D.M.A.  Much to my surprise I found these guys to be quite good.  They ran through their set at blistering speed.  Their guitarist possessed some skill and the lyrics from what I heard weren’t bad either.

            After D.M.A., came the group Mad Again.  It was at this point that I actually became well, mad once again.  This time I was angry at the bar prices and that I was not able to score free booze.  After all I was the press right?  Damn these Punkers.  So anyway Mad Again, opening with some new material, took to the stage.  Much to my surprise Tuck seemed to be the sober one out of the group.  Well of course with the exemption of Brad.  I am quite sure he’s on the straight edge.  Tipsy or not these guys had no trouble gelling on stage.  Tuck’s in between stories actually went together to form a complete story tonight.  Something or other about stealing a candy vending machine.  Although later the band admitted to making mistakes throughout their set I would rate this performance as one of their top ones.  It was just too bad there weren’t more people there to enjoy it.  I think a big reason for the shallow field of bodies was the lack of advertising.  It seems the great shows of lore were the ones with hundreds of flyers, which thanks to the computer age is a thing of the past.  Now it’s,  “Just check my Myspace page or SSE online.”

            I have been told that I have a tendency to ramble so back to the show.  Common Enemy, a band on a worldwide stateside tour all the way from Reading PA was next.  After about the shortest set up time of all the bands they were off.  Like an Atomic bomb they exploded into their first song sounding much like the great thrash punk bands of the past.  It was now evident to me why these guys could afford to tour.  They had what seemed to be the perfect old school sound with a touch of new.  It seemed that these guys loved skating too.  After about thirty minutes of glorious noise sadly the evening was coming to a close. 

            I went and bullshitted with the members of Mad Again for about an hour then hitched a ride from Andy.  Overall with a few minor shortcomings it turned out to be a fun night.