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• Anthrax

The sign was posted Friday night in the lobby of Old National Centre.

It read Scott Ian and Charlie Benante wouldn’t be performing with their band Anthrax that night in the Egyptian Room.

Turns out Ian contracted a viral infection on Wednesday that forced him to be hospitalized near Los Angeles, while Benante returned to New York to be with his terminally ill mother.

Obviously those are bad circumstances that would force most bands to cancel shows or an entire tour. But for a group that’s seen its share of adversity over its 31 years of existence, Anthrax found a way to keep it together.

In this case, the opening acts pitched in during Anthrax’s set. Testament drummer Gene “The Atomic Clock” Hoglan replaced Benante behind the kit and Death Angel guitarists Rob Cavestany and Ted Aguilar played Ian’s parts on a number of songs.

It seemed like singer Joey Belladonna and bassist Frank Bello were working extra hard to appease the audience, particularly when they only performed as a four-piece on raging new tracks like “Earth on Hell” and “Fight ’Em Till You Can’t.” Lead guitarist Rob Caggiano has enough meat to his instrument to keep the sound full anyway.

But a lot of credit goes to Hoglan, who played back-to-back sets like a champ. It’s not like this music is Sunday morning fare. The playing is fast and furious, and Hoglan handled it perfectly. If there was any disappointment from the crowd, it wasn’t noticeable. There wasn’t much moshing, even during the song “Caught in a Mosh” from which the practice got its name. That’s probably due mostly to the venue threatening to eject overly zealous attendees. It still didn’t stop some from turning manic during thrash classics like “Indians” and “I Am the Law.”

As much hardship as Anthrax has endured over the years, this was merely a blip on the calamity map. Though their set was limited to 12 songs, the show was overwhelming confirmation of their resolve.

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• The young men of Late Nite Reading

Last Friday night, I found myself fumbling around the social networking website Stickam. After a face-to-face interview with local pop-punk saplings Late Nite Reading fell through, I agreed to interview them during their nightly broadcast on Stickam.

However, when I logged on to the site, I realized that I had no idea what was going on. I have always kept up with pop culture, albeit, mostly from a distance, and I felt secure in knowing what was up in the world. My Stickcam experience, however, made me feel like Rip Van Winkel, waking up behind the times.

As my confusion turned to frustration, I broke down and called Late Nite Reading bassist Brady Szuhaj for assistance. Szuhaj laughed sympathetically when I admitted how lost I was on the Stickam website. After guiding me through the registration process, Szuhaj welcomed me to the band’s popular video broadcast where my face stood out amongst scores of 16-year-old girls.

With my technical issues resolved, Szuhaj and Late Nite Reading frontman Dolton Wixom opened up to my questions in front of their 900 Internet followers that night.

“This is actually a slow night for us,” said Szuhaj. “We do this show every weeknight and we usually have around 2000 people tuning in.”

To have 2000 people hanging on your every word is pretty impressive for any local band, not to mention a high school band. All members of Late Nite Reading are between the ages of 16 and 18. Only drummer Drew Cottrell and guitarist Mitch Volpe are currently attending traditional high schools.

Late Nite Reading formed in 2009 and began developing their devout following early on. Bypassing traditional DIY avenues, Late Nite Reading incubated their fan base by blitzing the Internet.

“We are all about social media,” explained Szuhaj. “Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, Stickam: we use it all. They’re all cool ways to connect with fans.”

“Because of all the social networking,” said Wixom, “our national fan base actually predates our local fan base.”

Despite having a larger national following, Late Nite Reading have made sure not to neglect the local scene.

“We’ve played all the local haunts,” said Wixom. “E.S. Jungle, The Emerson, Earth House and the Dojo: you name it, we’ve played it.”

The band’s sound is radio-ready pop-punk; it has attracted the attention of big, national acts and promoters.

“We’ve played all over the Midwest supporting big bands,” said Szuhaj, “We’ve played with bands like All Time Low, Never Shout Never, Yellowcard and Forever The Sickest Kids.”

This past summer, the band embarked on their first tour.

“It was a lot of fun. We toured down to Texas and back with our friends from Score 24 from Long Island,” said Suzhaj.

While their pre-existing following certainly made their first official outing a bit easier, the tour wasn’t without educational experiences.

“We were playing sold out shows in smaller clubs with maybe 200-300 people” reminisced Suzhaj, “but it was easy because we just kind of followed Score 24’s lead. They really showed us the ropes of touring.”

At a gig in Austin, Texas, the band received some scary news.

“We were playing at Six Flags, Austin” said Wixom, “we got there early and were hitting up the rides and chilling with fans, waiting for Score 24 to show up. All of a sudden, we got a call from Score 24 saying that their van had broken down and that they were dropping off of the tour. We were really nervous. They had always been there to show us what was up, but now we were on our own.”

Luckily for the band, the rest of the tour went off without a hitch without their mentors.

“We were able to deal with everything on our own.” said Szuhaj, beaming. “Even though it was a bummer that Score 24 had to drop off, we still had a great tour without them.”

After returning from the tour, LNR geared up to release their second EP, Dedicated to Deadlines.

“Our first EP was really raw and doesn’t really represent our current sound,” said Szuhaj. “We’re really proud of Deadlines. It’s gotten us a lot of hype.”

The four-track Deadlines incorporates new-school pop-punk and electro-pop elements with incredibly slick production. The band isn’t afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves.

“Of course, we like Blink 182 and the older punk sound but we listen to a lot of All Time Low and Forever The Sickest Kids,” admitted Szuhaj.

“I'm really into electronic music and Brady’s into more hardcore stuff,” added Wixom.

“I guess you could say that Dolton is pop and I’m punk,” said Szuhaj.

With Deadlinesonly available online, the band is more or less self-sufficient.

“We do so much on our own,” explained Szuhaj. “We really don’t need a label at this point but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t welcome a label deal. We have a lot to juggle right now. [A label like] Hopeless Records would be ideal [but] while we have a big following, we just don’t have the sales to really attract any serious attention.”

Until spring break (when they can tour again), the band is taking it easy.

“We’ll play locally or play a weekend show every now and then,” said Szuhaj. “But, our main objective is just to try to move units and not lose momentum.”

• Photo by Jimmy Hubbard

“That was a place that I never thought I'd visit in my entire life. We get there and there was 30-40,000 people from all over the Middle Eastern world.” Mastodon's bassist Troy Sanders was telling me about a recent trip to Dubai. “We met people from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Oman and Jordan. It made the statement true [that] music is the universal language of the world; that was very obvious to me when we played and had all of those fans from all of those countries pull together for a concert. It was absolutely incredible and mind-blowing.”

Now touring behind a powerful new record, the boys in Mastodon are roaming closer to home. They'll be paying Indy a visit tomorrow evening at the Old National Centre.

“We're throwing out a mixed bag this time around,” Sanders said. “We are playing half of our new record, The Hunter, and then we are playing three or four from each of the previous four records. It's gonna have something for everybody."

Each of Mastodon's previous records have featured a theme. Fire was the word for Remission, their first (and hardest) effort. Water was the central theme for Leviathan, a concept album based on the story of Moby Dick. Earth was the substance of Blood Mountain and on Crack The Skye, it was air. For The Hunter, Mastodon decided on wood. The theme is literally carved right into the album's cover.

“We have a lot of songs that deal with wood and forests onThe Hunter and we got our friend AJ Fosik to carve this massive triple-jawed minotaur out of wood. [He was] working on the piece as we were making the record,” said Sanders.

The music is a return to the meatier sounds of Leviathan. “Black Tongue” and “Curl of the Burl” kick off the record with an attack so neck-snappingly heavy that the ultra-prog of their previous two efforts is almost forgotten.

The Thin Lizzy-on-steroids sound combined with Sanders' God of Thunder bass and Brann Dailor's Neil Peart-ian drum workouts still propel Mastodon's music.

“Our previous record Crack The Skye was very layered, very emotional, very complex and follows this very bizarre storyline. So, after writing Crack The Skye, recording Crack The Skye and then touring Crack The Skye for over two years, when it came time to write new material, our immediate reaction was to go a different route,” Sanders said. “We never want to make the same record twice, and after Crack The Skye - after we had just achieved every thing we had wanted to do - it was time to ignite a fresh fire in our bellies. So, we took a sharp left turn and reinvented ourselves. It was a very natural reaction.”

While prog seeps into The Hunter in songs like “Stargasm” and “All The Heavy Lifting,” the album moves all over the place stylistically. From the breathless brutality of “Spectrelight” to the southern-fried head-smash boogie of “Blasteroid” and “Creature Lives,” this is Mastodon's most accomplished set of tracks. The album's title track is a straight-up Alice In Chains homage, while “The Sparrow” is probably one of the band's most beautifully moving songs.

“I feel that everything we've done is part of this natural evolution that is and has been Mastodon. We want to keep carving out our own unique path, and so far, I think, we've been right on course,” Sanders said, proudly. “We have been able grow with each other for the last 11 years and we are more aligned with each other more then ever before. I think things are getting easier for us, because we've evolved with each other as friends and as a band at the same time over the years.”

Of all the aesthetically-impeccable all-female three-decade-veteran Japanese pop bands to come out of Osaka, I can guarantee that none of them rock the Piet Mondrian look quite like Shonen Knife.

Shonen Knife’s performance at Radio Radio was like something out of another time — when the big-time rock stars were still close enough to touch and familiar enough to pop out after the show to meet with their biggest fans. Musically, it was the sound that defined the 1990s — and, in fact, influenced a lot of the grunge scenesters — and appeared on more than a few indie film soundtracks of the era.

The two newer members performed with a delirious energy; Emi attacked the drums for all they were worth and Ritsuko struck a hair-banging pose every chance she got. In general, they were getting a tremendous kick from stagesmanship. Sole remaining founding member Naoko played the role of the somber veteran — aka Joey Ramone’s job — but, nonetheless, beamed as she blazed through the guitar solos and vocals.

Naoko remarked to us that she would love to play with Cheap Trick sometime, and to be honest, I can totally see why — they carry at least as much Cheap Trick influence as Ramones. They played brief, chipper tunes with a bit more of a classic blues-rock tone than the Ramones, with a gleeful sense of playful abandon as they rip through one zippy song after another. The band performed for just over an hour, but the energy and spunk made it all feel quite a bit longer (in the best way possible).

For their encore, the band occasionally known as the Osaka Ramones cut loose with a series of Ramones covers, paying tribute to the band that influenced Naoko so long ago. And damn if all the hey-ho, let’s go business doesn’t resonate as well today as it did 30 years past. It was a sound that both fills you with energy and still tweaks a nostalgic sigh, “Ah, this is how it must have been.” But it was also a deliriously perky reminder that sometimes it can still be that way.

• The women of Shonen Knife

Final Jeopardy! “Of Shonen Knife, he once said, ‘When I finally got to see them live, I was transformed into a hysterical nine-year-old at a Beatles concert.’” If you answered ‘Kurt Cobain,’ congratulations, you probably just beat Watson.

Seminal Japanese pop-punk band Shonen Knife celebrates 30 years in the music industry with their current tour, which brings them to Radio Radio next Monday. They bring together an unusual combination of the power-singing of Phil Spector-era girl groups and the rampaging rock of the punk bands who were big in 1981, especially the Ramones. Their most recent album, in fact, is “Osaka Ramones,” a tribute to the work of Joey and company.

They opened for Nirvana during the “Nevermind” tour, though as you can tell from his statement, Cobain probably thought of them as the headliners. They’ve had several successful American tours since then, particularly a spot on Lollapalooza.

Only one founding member, Naoko (guitar/vocals) remains with the band, along with Ritsuko (bass) and Emi (drums) The band members, who go by first name only — unless you count their Ramone names, Naoko Ramone et al — deliver their music with a combination of playful spunk, color-coordinated costumes and just plain enthusiasm that tends to guarantee a pretty good show. (The most subversive thing about the Ramones was how much FUN they were having the entire time.) They’ve been known to describe themselves as “super-eccentric-pop-punk-cult-band-shonen-knife!” which just about sums it all up, and will also make an excellent title for the inevitable comic book adaptation of their lives.

We spoke (well, e-mailed) with Naoko about their current tour, the Ramones covers and what it’s like to still be rocking after 30 years:

NUVO: This is the second American tour for the current lineup; how have you meshed together in that time. How is the Shonen Knife sound of 2011 different from that of 2001 or 1991?

NAOKO: Ritsuko and Emi have nice characters and they are good musicians. We have good relationship, too. Our sound became more powerful than before.

NUVO: What’s it like traveling the United States these days? Over all the times you’ve been here, from the mid-1980s tour to now, is there a difference in the fan reaction?

NAOKO: We play most of everyday and drive a lot. Our first overseas show was 1989 just once in L.A. and the second time was 1991. It wasn’t started from mid -80’s. Anyway, in 90’s we toured in a tour bus and now we are touring in a van. I prefer a van. It’s convenient to go everywhere. The reaction from our fans getting more aggressive. We have a lot of mosh. It’s a little dangerous, though. We always have a great audience.

NUVO: Given the huge influence the Ramones have been on Shonen Knife, what was it like assembling a Ramones tribute album after all this time?

NAOKO: After we recorded Ramones covers, I became to know how their music is great and fun.

NUVO: What’s your take on the Ramones songs you cover? What elements of your own style do you bring to the songs?

NAOKO: Since we are female and our voice are different from Joey. We changed the key of the songs. For the arrangement, we tried to just like the original but without notice, we could make our original style.

NUVO: What music are you listening to these days? Are there any performers that are having an influence on you in the way the Beatles and Ramones influenced the band’s early days?

NAOKO: I like to listen to ‘70’s British hard rock like Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Rainbow and so on. I like KISS, too. Their stage performances are fun.

NUVO: Are there are any artists performing right now that you think will still be having an influence 10 or 20 years in the future?

NAOKO: The Rolling Stones?!

NUVO: Are there any bands in America you’d love to perform with that you haven’t already? Given the chance, what Japanese bands would you perform with?

NAOKO: Cheap Trick. Japanese bands… Yellow Machinegun.

NUVO: What’s your relationship like with American fans? How is fandom in America different than in Japan or Europe?

NAOKO: We always have autograph sessions after our show. I can meet and greet with our fans. Everybody is so nice. I also have many messages at Twitter and other social network. There is no difference from other countries.

NUVO: What are some of your fondest memories of touring — whether in America or elsewhere?

NAOKO: The fondest thing for me is meeting with wonderful audience all over the world.

NUVO: Emi: This is your second time on a U.S. tour with Shonen Knife — what did you learn about touring and performing last time you were here? What are you looking forward to this time around?

EMI: America is so huge and I learned how to get sleep in a van. I’m looking forward to see many of our fans in America.

NUVO: What kind of advantages do digital technology, communication, and the always-on world of social media bring that weren’t around in earlier stages of Shonen Knife’s career?

NAOKO: When we started Shonen Knife, snail mail was the only tool to communicate with overseas. Because phone fee was expensive. It became very convenient to announce our information through internet. It is a little sad that the progress of internet got away vinyl and CD, though.

NUVO: What do you feel keeps your popularity high around the worldwide, after three decades?

NAOKO: I never look back and I just keep on rocking.

NUVO: Anything else you’d like to add?

NAOKO: I hope you enjoy our Osaka Ramones album and other albums, too and let’s ROCK at our show!

Shonen Knife performs at Radio Radio Monday, November 14. Doors open at 8. $10 in advance, $12 day of show. For more information: futureshock.net, shonenknife.net.

• GWAR is always on a Magical Mystery Tour.

Update: On Thursday, as GWAR prepared to head to Canada for the remainder of their current tour, lead guitarist Cory Smoot (aka Flattus Maximus) was found dead. This is truly sad news, and NUVO offers our condolences to Smoot's friends, family and band mates. Metalsucks has a statement direct from GWAR's frontman, Dave Brockie, on Smoot's passing.

1. No matter how much time you spend trying to find a spot that's out of the range of GWAR’s many blood cannons, you'll probably underestimate. I didn’t count the number of times that GWAR shot fake blood into the audience, though I’m positive it was at least ten, and probably more. At one point they decided to cut through the drama of acting out a beheading or a disembowelment as a precursor to jets of fake blood, and instead they just wheeled out a cannon whose sole purpose, it seems, was to emit a concentration of fake blood into the audience.

2. A high level of acting skill is not necessary with a liberal helping of fake blood and a heavy-metal backing track. At several points in the evening, one character would simply wave his giant sword in the direction of another character, at which point that character would simply stop what he was doing and remove a layer of fake skin in order to simulate a wound. Casting directors of the world, take note.

3. GWAR are a great unifier in the heavy-metal world. Under few other circumstances would it make as much sense for a traditional death-metal band like Ghoul and a metalcore band like Every Time I Die to be playing together. In addition to this, I saw nearly every stripe of metal-head imaginable at this concert, and they all seemed either to be having the time of their life or to be frustrated that they were more soaked in fake blood than they would have liked.

4. There is probably someone, somewhere writing a lengthy academic essay on how GWAR is a reflective repository of negative cultural imagery from American society. This essay, though probably containing a valid argument, is misguided.

5. It is as bizarre as it sounds to see an effigy of Snooki from Jersey Shore disemboweled by a bunch of armored trolls. It is equally weird to see a group of armored trolls hold a bull fight with a dragon-like creature called the "Jaeger Monster," as well as to see them attack a small roundish creature with giant teeth and a feather duster for an arm because it was a custodian and it complained about the mess they were making.

6. After seeing the band for the first time, it is likely that you will spend the first 10 minutes of your drive home laughing maniacally. With a little bit of critical distance from the events that have just befallen you, it becomes quite clear how patently ridiculous and hilarious it is that a band has made a career out of live shows like the one you just saw.

7. It is possible to do basically the same thing for nearly 30 years and to maintain a consistently high level of energy and commitment to creating the most absurd live show possible. GWAR first formed in 1984. Since then they’ve played countless shows and fired countless gallons of fake bodily fluids into countless audiences. After this concert at The Vogue, it’s clear that they’ve lost none of their energy, and that they’ll probably continue doing what they’re doing into the foreseeable future. Thank heavens for that, because GWAR inject some much-needed levity into a genre that sometimes takes itself far too seriously.

Slideshow

Punk Rock Night Awards 2011 (slideshow)

Greg Brenner sort of says farewell, handing on daily hosting and organizing duties of Punk Rock Night during the showcase's annual awards show.

By Paul F. P. Pogue

Click to View 12 slides

Punk Rock Night Awards 2011
Melody Inn, Oct. 1
4.5 stars

It's past 1 a.m. at the historic Melody Inn, and longtime Punk Rock Night impresario Greg Brenner is giving his farewell speech. Let’s listen in to see if the capstone of his 11 years of dedicated service is received with the respect and sentimentality we’ve always come to expect from the PRN scene.

“Get the fuck off the stage! Shut the fuck up! Less talk, more rock!”

Guess not. Brenner takes it in stride: “Why don’t you go eat a bag of dicks? I’m fucking talking here!”

Good to know the PRN crowd will never let us down.

If nothing else, the PRN awards is always a great chance to see what happens when the punk rock kids try to go formal, with an entertaining mess of fishnets, evening wear and Doc Martens. Still, over the years, we seem to have gotten the whole classy-punk thing down pretty well. It should come as no surprise that Brenner himself is not terribly good at that part.

Among other memorable incidents, the ladies of longtime PRN staples Bottoms Up Burlesque presented Brenner with an award for his longtime support: “You were there at the beginning and you’ve always been there for us since,” Meg Olsen noted. In what probably stands as the best line of the night, Brenner retorted, “I was just trying to get into your pants!”

And Rich Barker, PRN assistant maestro, proved an able host in the warmup for his new gig as host and organizer. He presented Brenner with the Joey Ramone Lifetime Achievement Award and a plaque with a dial that goes up to 11. (Rest assured that the Spinal Tap vein was mined many a time tonight.)

Brenner, who's transitioning to a new role that is less retirement and more full-time elder statesman, enjoyed himself much as he always does at these things. Let’s let him have the final word: “For everyone who said we couldn’t fucking do this here in Indy, just remember we fucking did this on our own!”

• Paul F. P. Pogue
• Brenner in 2003.

This Saturday’s Punk Rock Night awards marks the end of an era. After 11 years organizing the long-running event, founder, host and general maven-about-town Greg Brenner is retiring from his day-to-day role in favor of expanding the idea elsewhere and producing for individual bands.

“I’ve been doing this for so long, I don’t think I can add anything more to the night in the role I am now,” he says. “I want to get back to the roots of the night and see if I can propagate it in other cities — and create a circuit, which was one of the original ideas back in the beginning. And as far as producing, I’ve probably seen close to 10,000 bands in my life, so I think I could add some value to a band by championing their work.”

However, this is far from the end for a weekly event that taught half of Indianapolis how to complete the phrase “Every Saturday night is …” Brenner is handing over the managing and hosting to Rich Barker, who’s been heavily involved in PRN organization for quite some time now.

“This thing has really stood the test of time,” he says. “I’m glad that I can turn it back over to the community, and I have strong faith in Rich and everyone else involved that it’s going to continue to be great.”

Punk Rock Night thus remains one of the longest-running, if not the longest-running, live music events in the city.

“I really thought it was going to be one of those six-month things, but I just persevered and made it work,” he says. “There wasn’t a lot out there when it started, and now there’s a lot of choices every night, which is the way a city should be. I just wanted to go to a show, and I said, ‘Nothing’s out there, so I guess I’ll do it myself.’”
Check out details of the 10th Annual Punk Rock Night Music Awards.

• Brenner in 2010.

• Help fill the Dojo.

These are strange times for the local hardcore/punk scene. The once-popular DIY movement in the city has slowed down to a trickle of shows.

When The Dojo opened a year ago, it hosted a modest schedule of concerts, booked mostly by the venue's founders. As word spread about the venues prospects, more and more people began setting up shows there. Everything from hardcore and metal to ska and Christian butt-rock could be heard blasting out of the mid-town storefront venue.

In just a few months, the venue went from hosting two to three shows a month to two to three a week! The Dojo, which requires only a $50 deposit to rent, has empowered just about anyone interested in becoming a DIY promoter. All it takes to promote a show there is a few weeks’ worth of allowance, access to a photocopier and at least one band willing to play.

Sadly, as the number of promoters and shows increased, the number of attendees did not. The same pool of 200 or so show-goers soon became divided between a dozen or so shows per month. Drawing more than four or five people to a show became a challenge. And it's a vicious circle: If people aren't showing up at shows, then bands aren't getting paid; if bands aren't getting paid, they aren't getting gas money; and if bands aren't getting gas money, they tend to not want to come back on the next tour. The Dojo currently has less than a half-dozen shows booked for the month of October.

As with art, fashion and other facets of culture, music scenes grow from the grassroots. A healthy DIY scene is a good indicator of a healthier scene overall. If two-bit punk shows aren’t doing well, the larger music scene will ultimately be affected.

As many before me have noticed, these things are cyclical. But that doesn’t mean that we can just cross our arms and wait for it to get better again or to fix itself. We need people who are willing to support their local scene and make the trek out to shows. Staying in and watching a River Monsters marathon is easy; challenge yourself to get up off your ass and be a part of your city.

For listings of local DIY shows check out The Dojo or The Hoosier Dome.