Street Dogs - Certain Fate

Street Dogs - Certain Fate (US)

From the Album "Rustbelt Nation" (2013)

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Street Dogs - Rustbelt Nation

Street Dogs - Rustbelt Nation (US)
Single taken from 

the album "Rustbelt Nation" (2013) 

Best and Worst of 2012 (The 1,2, Fuck You List)

2012 I will remember as one of the best Punk Years ever. I doubt that I even back in the early 80ies during the punk and Oi! years saw as many good concerts as this. Both new fresh bands and old timers still going strong. There was both biiiiig events as the West Coast Riot festival and Dropkick Murphys, Iggy and the Stooges and The Hives filling up Gröna Lund to the max. As the were a few people showing up in a club or at Gula Villan for some amazing well played, whitty and hard punk. Infact there was so much going on that I missed some, didn´t had the energy to attend some.

What can we look forward to make it even better the next year? Well, the crowd could get bigger at many clubs. The bands deserve bigger crowds and you deserve to see theese bands.
There are new records comming next year with bands like Rancid, Vänsternäven and Dropkick Murphys. And Possibly will Ligisterna get it going as well. Not to mention all the bands that Im not aware of their struggle for the perfect mix for their next masterpiece, is Nej among those? Cheers all you Punx, Skunx, Muses, Chix, Skins, Progs, Metals and Others.

Tim and Lars from Rancid at WCR
Buy West Coast Riot Prints here

Best Concert
Rancid at West Coast Riot (Gothenburg)
Street Dogs at Debaser Slussen (Stockholm)



Best Concert Promotor/festival/club
West Coast Riot,
Pike

Best full length record 
Hyper Actives – Rock n Roll lives again

Best Single (Vinyl, CD or Digital)
The Dräperz – Välkommen till Råby

Records of other interests
Rebel Riot – Puppet Society (Full length CD)
Rancid – Fuck you (single)

Niklas of Ligisterna

Best bands

Rancid,

Street Dogs, 

Ligisterna, 

Asta Kask, 

Positive new discoveries

Rebel Riot (Bur), 

Louise Linggs and the Bombs (Fra),

Nej (Swe), 

Chix n Dix (Can)

Beorn of Nej

Best Singalongs

Mata asen med bly (Ligisterna), 

Staden Göteborg (Troublemakers), 

Ronka (Troublemakers)

Tobey Got a Drinking Problem (Street Dogs)

Iggy and the Stooges at Gröna Lund

Best Revivals

Alonzo and Fas3 (ex KSMB, Stockholms Negrer) , 

Bitch Boys, 

Iggy and The Stooges

Fjodor (Ex Ebba Grön) singing Staten och Kapitalet at Cellstock

Heaviest

Link (Bel)

Hardest 

Knark (Swe)

Ultimate Punk Heros

Pussy Riot (Rus)

Worst Disapointment

That I missed Hudson Falcons playing in Stockholm

Worst Let down

Social Distortion at Circus

Cellstock (Festival)

The Hives Live at Gröna Lund

Worst Pseudo Happening

The Refused reunion

The good, the bad and the Street Dogs.

On Facebook Street Dogs thanks the fans for their best European tour ever. Now they fly home again.
Sweden thank Street Dogs.

I will reblog Toby`s frustration with a certain airline.

"A week ago @British_Airways lost 2 Gibson Les Pauls, 2 1970's Fender Basses, and a set of Zildjian cymbals. At this point @British_Airways have made no attempt to get these back to us. Also mind you we spent $600 in bag fees for this kind of service. Words can't express the impact that this takes on a band to not have your necessary tools of your trade. We are calling on all of you to retweet and repost this story wherever you can to hopefully get their attention and get our gear back. Thanks for all support you guys are truly the greatest fans in the world. 

Tobe"

Tobe got his guitars back after som pressure from fans. But, it stinks that airlines behave like they pissed their pants, over and over again.

I saw the light! a Review of the West Coast Riot

Find pictures from WCR here.

Bruce Springsteen checked out Against Me and Rancid

What did the Boss think of Rancids concert?

The Event

West Coast Riot is by any comparison Sweden´s biggest punk festival. Not the biggest rock festival, but the biggest just for punk. Fat Wreck record have dubbed it the best punk festival in the world….hm, I haven’t been to them all so, well…but anyway, it was one of the best festival I been to. Just the location this year, just at the sea side with the open sea in sight was stunning. And this year´s line-up was something extra. I havn´t bothered to go there the years before, but when I saw that Rancid was headlining, it was a must to go. And then one good band after another was added to the bill, I would say it was mandatory to attend. Good that people didn´t do that. It was enough with people as it was in the rather narrow festival area not really dimensioned for the size of the crowd. Normally it is just an empty spot next to the art museum Röda Sten. This sunny Thursday in July it was Heaven and Hell at the same time, at least hot as Hell.

The Crowd, the Museum and the Bridge


The Location

I have already been on about the marvelous placement by the seashore. The smell of the salty sea water made me in a good mood. It smelled like vacation, the Baltic Sea at Stockholm doesn´t smell as good.
The concert area was easily reached with the tram. According to some WCR veterans logistics was much better this year. It was surreal to spend the festival right under the huge bridge, Älvsborgsbron.
The only thing to complain about was that there was too few food tents so the lines was long, too long for me. I went outside the festival area for a Bratwurst. While eating it a Mohawk drunk decided to take a dump next to me, squatting down a few meters from me taking a shit. Well, that´s punk…or? It reminded me on a song we wrote in my band Streetwalking Jesus about the “Braune Bratwurst”. Enough of filth now.

The Crowd

There´s an expression about Gothenburg fellows, “Goa Gubbar” (Nice Lads), and that was a fact. The west coasters are so much friendlier and easy accessible that the east coast Stockholmers. It was like everybody was my best friend, or something. Not a meat head in sight. The bands was in for the same treat. Singalongs, mosh pitting, dancing, cheering from the first chord to the last. Rancid, Asta Kask, Street Dogs and Anti Flag pointed out that. The Swedish Punk veteran Alonzo took a photo of us in the crowd because he wanted to keep this moment in his photo book. Over all everyone was in a good mood, helping each other up when someone tripped in the sometimes rather wild mosh pits.


The Bands

Gatans Lag  
and Dystra Li

Both bands opened the festival in a tent each. The Oi! Skinhead band Gatans Lag didn´t take any prisoners. It was full aggression from the first chord. And the crowd was there. Dystra Li did show some hesitation. Maybe because their tent was much less attended then Gatans Lag´s. The playing time for all bands was rather tight so why waste it on doubts and “excuse us mentality” like Dystra Li did, The only disappointment this day. I ran back to Gatans Lag´s stage again to catch the last of it. Gatans Lag proved that their best song was "Skalla, sparka sluta aldrig slå". Not only because the Lyrics is venting some serious anger against the middle class that modern society is designed to please, the tune is catchy as well. This is the working class town of Gothenburg, welcome!

Asta Kask opening the main stage, Photo talen from Micke Blomqvist´s facebook

Asta Kask

Swedish punk legends Asta Kast got the honour to open at the main stage. It was as usual full throttle from the start. It took them only three chords to have me in the mosh pit. I am close to my 50ies now, beer bellied and with a strong refusal to both play Golf, get a Labrador or got to the gym. This was my exercise.
Best song? All of them, it´s hard to choose one.
The sound wasn’t perfect but fair enough. And Asta proved them self again, they are NOT any lame ass punk revival band, they got the punk in the blood and their hearts beating as fast as their drums.

Street Dogs

I was prepared to be a bit disappointed in Street Dogs after seeing them doing one of the best shows I ever seen, in Stockholm a few week ago. But I wasn´t let down. The Massachusetts lads showed that they master the fine art of Punk Rock. Best song? “Tobey´s got a drinking problem”, but all of they were as good. Rancid might be better because better tunes, but Street Dogs are terribly hard working leaving nothing to ask for.

Beer pause and some bands I didn’t cared for too much about.

After that I was onto a serious beer pause. A chat with both new found friends and some Stockholm people that’s in the Stockholm scene. Mr Kjell Hell, one of Sweden´s best punk bloggers told me sad news, that he didn´t update his blog any more. To bad.

In the background I hear Anti Flag, The sound is good, but they doesn´t have as good songs at the opening bands. I catch a bit of the end of their set and saw they were working as hard as the rest of the bands. And some thought they were great. I wasn´t expecting to much so there wasn´t any disappointment. The same goes for some of the other bands that I wasn´t too interested in or impressed by. And some bands was missed because they was playing at the same time as someone else. Gallows I should have seen, however, but you can´t have it all, can you?

Beer, sunlight, more beer, chatting, saying hello, just feeling fine I the heat. This is all what a vacation should be like.

Alonzo & fas 3

Next band was Alonzo & fas 3, the punk veteran Micke Alonzo was a singer in classic Swedish bands like KSMB and Stockholms Negrer, Micke´s vocals dominated the set or should I write his punk,top of the lung screaming. At the same time Against me played with The Boss, Bruce Springsteen and the E street Band in the audience. The Boss then stayed to watch Rancid´s excellent performance. At facebook, I later noticed, The Boss and Alonzo had a chat. About what? How to yell as a madman onstage? I´ll ask him next time I meet Micke.

Micke Alonzo entered the stage with barly any voice telling us to help him sing his songs. That he didn´t had to ask twice. Then the 50+ gentleman started to scream his lung out in a way that could scare even the most hardcore growler. The band seems a bit shellshocked at first and didn´t match the aggression Micke poured on stage. But they catched up and found themself and did a decent job in the end. OK, it was not like KSMB or Stockholms Negrer was back in the days. But fair enough. The new songs that I wasn´t too fond of on record, was excellent live. Best song? Tonight it was Atom Reggae, even if almost all his songs are a part of our proud Swedish punk history.

Picture taken from Rancids Facebook


Rancid

Then there was an end of a long wait. Not only that Rancid havn´t been here for ten years, and as one punk at the festival put it, the band we been following and liked for a long time but havn´t seen live. Also a long wait for the concert we were all there for. To be honest, this wasn´t a festival, it was a Rancid concert with a long list of great support acts. Almost all I spoke to was there for Rancid.

And then we met God. Divided into four entities
Tim, minus his iconc hat with his skull tattoo on display (shaved head) and a beard that made him look like he gonna join ZZ Top. Lars, with his new skin head look and with his constant pissed off look. Even when he expressed apreachiations he looked like he really ment to smash our faces in. Matt, the man who looks like he came directly out of the bowling alley, who´s fingers out speed most bass players around. And in the back Branden that took over Brett role in the band in an excellent way.


The four of them, with their different stage presents melt together to one big punk love that includes the crowd. I got the feeling that the security barriers annoys the band. Tim tries several times to build a bridge over it. And in the end they call up a guy from the front row to sing a song with them. Tim Armstrong just played his Gretch and let the boy sing it. Possible the moment of his life.


Me, the rest of the crowd, including Bruce Springsteen, the Swedish punk legends was in it for a holy moment. There was something beyond the music, their world class tunes that got me. I was in the mosh pit and singing along for the most part of the nearly two hours show. But there was something extra added to it just see them live, feel their mental enery. With the risk to sound like a hippy (like if I cared?), this was just what I in my wildest dream wished for but wasn´t expecting. How could I doubt in God? Best song? Well, I repeat myself here. All of them. but there was one line that refused to leave me after. “When I got the music, I got a place to go” from the Let´s Go CD. I looked at the face of God realizing that Tim not just sang it, he delivered the ultimate truth. The God incarnated in the bodies and music of Tim, Lars, Matt and Branden.


Turbonegro

After I was struck of a feeling of fulfillment, perfection and emptiness. Deadly tired, the beer was sold out, so a glass of wine had to do. Then one look into the tent where Turbonegro was up next as the closing band. a most unpleasant task if you ask me, was enough. Then I was on it a gain, when I got the music I got a place to go. The Turbojugend logo, the leather cap in Neon as a backdrop just made me wanna go and see them. The new singer that was to replace the egocentric Hank von Helvete, did an excellent job. Not as crazy and unpredictable as the good old Hank. But with a certain edge in the voice that was refreshing. Initially the sound was very good, at the end it was just loud. "All my friends are dead was the best song". The Turbo´s did steer the ship to the destination. They managed to do the impossible to match Rancid´s holy punk quest. If Rancid was the Light, Turbonegro brought us back to hell where you give them worms.

Finally

I was in heaven in a field hotter than hell. I saw the light it was great.

Worth the money? What a question! Just Rancid been worth the travel, the room, the expenses and the ticket of the ca 80 Euros. And I got all the other bands as well.


    

Tomorrow .....West Coast Riot, Yippie!

Rancid (US)

Asta Kask  (Swe)

Turbonegro (Nor)





Street Dogs (US)



And More.....

Review - Street Dogs, Greta Kassler, Spotlicks and Twopointeight

Saturday July 7, two concerts roughly at the same time.
At Broder Tuck was the line up Spotlicks, Greta Kassler and STYGG
At Debaser Medis was the line up Two point eight and Street Dogs (US)

STYGG didn´t get any review because I missed them because of Street Dogs.

The Places

Broder Tuck

The Broder Tuck Restaurant is rather big, the concert room in the basement are small, very small.
The contrast between the gangster look´a´like door men, their general clientel on the ground level and the Anarchists, Metal Heads and Punks in the basement are striking. The sound is mostly terrible, and loud. Very loud.

Debaser Slussen
Debaser Slussen togheter with Debaser Medis, Strand and Rocks the only decent rock clubs in Stockholm City. Debaser Slussen and Medis are mainly built up around concerts. The Stage a Debaser Slussen are however a photographers nightmare because most of the light are pointed towards you, not at the band. But the sound are generally much better than most of the clubs and stages in the City. Debaser in general attracts mostly a rock audience, not necessary a punk crowd. Tonight there are a lot of punk fans in the bulding, along with rock n rollers.


The Crowds

Broder Tuck

If you consider that Street Dogs are giving a free concert two subway stops away and most people are away on vacation it´s amazingly much people at Broder Tuck this particular night. As I written before, Broder Tuck got a horrible little basement as their concert room. And the bands seem pleased that so many showed up.

Debaser

Not only were we blessed this last days with high air humidity, which isn´t too common in Stockholm, the Debaser Slussen club was packed and hot as well. When I arrived more than halfway through Twopointeight´s gig there were like an wall of warm sweaty air to team up with me when I enter. It was packed so I can´t say I have a very good place to see the end of their gig from.

When it comes to the Street Dogs I got a perfect spot just outside the moshpit, and If I been in better shape I would most certainly been in the middle of it. Even the Boston lads in Street Dogs complain about the heat. Where I stood there were a fan blowing so it was OK, but still I got a sweat soaked T-shirt after the gig.


The Gigs

Broder Tuck


Spotlicks

First out this lovely, warm summer night was Spotlicks. A three man band, or should I write two men and one woman band, a woman that  was the main singer even if all of them were on vocals. The style of their punk is mostly based in early Swedish 78 punk. The songs are built up around power chord riffing and Swedish lyrics. The sound was really bad and didn’t gave the band the chance they deserved, but got a bit better toward the end, it is a bit pity that the sound was bad in the beginning, the band was better than the sound. And it was mostly a loud treble that reach my ears. The song that stayed in my mind was about you are good as you are (Fatta att du duger) But the songs were good, they played it like I like it. No noncense here, no arty stuff, just riffs pretty fast and vocals and Clash and Ebba Grön style of drumming. I liked it and a better sound would been better, at least to more clearly hear the vocals.


Greta Kassler

Greta Kassler mix D-beat and Trall Punk. They played fast. Live that night they did it convincingly even if the sound wasn´t the best, but loud as the sound waves moved me physically a cm or something. Much better than the sound Spotlick´s had to cope with though. It was fast and tight and the two singers different voices gave the music a different feeling even if the speed was mainly D-beat. And they sang it, not shouted, not chanted or growling it. It´s political and angry. Tonight they convinced. Too bad I couldn´t stay for the last band ST. But then I had to hurry to even get in to see the Street Dogs. I didn´t have time to say goodbye to the people there.

Worth the money, 100Skr (10 Pounds)? Yes, but this came to be in the shadow of what the Street Dogs did.


Debaser Slussen

Twopointeight

There are a certain hype around Twopointeight, mostly because their commercial, radio friendly rock heavy influenced by the Clash and Rancid. And that´s what is bothering me with the band, it´s a bit to mainstream and radio friendly for my taste. Not only me BTW, other just hates themfor other reasons. They are trying too hard to be the Swedish Rancid so they lose any originality. On record the smart productions lack the energy or punk. With Greta Kassler still ringing in my ears, TPE are way too slow. OK, it´s unfair to compare a part of a gig with a full gig but tonight Greta Kassler wins, not because better voices or better tunes, but because Greta is fast and full of energy, Twopointeight was slow and seems to be too cool to get dirty, that and the total lack of energy was a let down on me, others seems to like it. Not even their best song, Red Eyes, worked for me that night. Gubbrock (Old Mans Rock) is a word they are dangerously close to it. But it seems like I am not in phase with the crowd next to the stage.


Street Dogs

It is a bit surreal to be seeing a class act as Street Dogs for free. The former Dropkick Murphys singer Michael McColgan quit the Murphys to fulfill his dream to become a fire fighter just as Dropkick broke in the punk scene. Since then he is a  Street Dog. It stood clear last night what Mc Colgan brought to the Dropkick Murphys debut record Do or Die (which is my favorite DKM record). The speed, the energy and the punk. Street Dogs lacks most of the Gaelic stuff that DKM based their career around, it´s more just punk.
First I have to take a deep breath before I go on and tell you about it, because the memory itself gives me shivers. And point out that sometimes you feel that you are in the right place at the right time. This gig was one of those moments. So seem the band feel about it as well.
I feel sorry for those suckers that ware at the Roskilde that night to see Bruce Springsteen, when it was at Debaser it was happening.

From the beginning the band showed that this was for real. The best sound all night, Loud but not as loud as during Greta Kassler. Fast and hard and mercy less! Most of their known songs, as well as a few covers and DKM songs. The two songs I missed was Power in the Union and Skinhead on MBTA (Will I ever hear my favorite song live?) but that didn´t matter tonight. Tight, heavy and fast (not D-beat fast but fast.) and with all the energy TPE didn´t showed.  
The best was the Dropkick songs near the end with old “Do or Die”  and “Get up”, the DKM songs and covers. Especially the song Do or Die (for a moment my eyes met Mikes as we were chanting out the lyrics as he pointed at me and I answered with a raised fist).

Wow, is the only word that describes it all. The Crowd did go absolutely mental from the first song. The band and the crowd ripped the place apart totally, I saw a bar table go wasted and the Gods only know what else broke, the blood was pouring down people foreheads, smashed bloody in the euphoria this night gave us. Energy, mosh pitting, sing a longs, stage diving, you name it, The good singer himself was crowd surfing as well. This was everything a punk rock concert should be about, it was there! The band seem to enjoy themselves, loving the crowd, the crowd loved the Dogs onstage. Some fans loved the Dogs onstage and was welcomed by a friendly band.
The band assured us that this moment will stay a long time in their hearts. I It will in my as well.

When the band as the second song in the encore burst out in Sham 69´s Bostal Breakout sung as Boston Breakout, then I thought both me and the whole place should explode. And so it went on throught the rather generous encore. What a night!. We all need a little Punk Rock n Roll.

It was pointless continuing drinking beer or chatting with old friends after. Because all I could think of was how blessed I´ve been to be there. So I went home rather quickly.

I went home with the worst Tinnitus in a long time, a big smile and a memory of seeing the light.
A light lit by some Street Dogs, Working class punk from Massachusetts.

Worth the money?……It didn´t cost anything, but let´s say this was one of the best concerts I´ve seen.      
Next chance for me to catch them is at West Coast Riot in Gothenburg July 26.

West Coast Riot, all stages all bands all where and whens!

Greta Kassler Vs. Street Dogs, Broder Tuck Vs. Debaser

Broder Tuck Vs. Debaser

This saturdays clash between two punk band events will be interessting. In the south corner will be the Brother Tuck restaurant with its small cellar stage. On stage that night will be Spotlicks, Greta Kassler and S.T.Y.G.G.

and in the North corner will be Rock Club Debaser Slussen, with hyped up Swedish band Twopointeight and former Dropkick Murphys singer  Mike McColgans working class punk band Street Dogs.


Personally I find it annoying that such event ends up the same day. It´s cool that there is somethings happening. Too bad its on the same time.

Rancid, Asta Kask, Street Dogs all on West Coast Riot 2012

Gothenburg Punk festival West Coast Riot Presents a program that look pretty good. Rancid been on since a few weeks. Asta Kask, Alonzo & Fas 3, anti-flag and more will be
added.