Police State in various ways

Police State, The Displeased, The Sods, Red Light City
Dick’s Bodacious Barbecue
Saturday, May 7

Under the eye of Broad Ripple’s police helicopter, the punks gathered Saturday for the Punk Rock Night’s first show at Dick’s Bodacious Barbecue. As soon as I got out of my car, there was a toy gun pointed at my head. That was a good example of the whole night: a little crazy, a little over the top, but a lot of fun. Later in the night, the same gun was almost confiscated by a cop who informed us that it’s still a felony to point it at people, even just a toy, after someone sprawled out across the sidewalk, pointing it at people and insisting that they give him smack.

The first band was Police State, a local Oi! band who apparently only has one show left together due to two of its members moving away. The highlight of their set was their cover of CockSparrer’s “Where Are They Now,” a song which both credits and questions people from early punk, specifically including Joe Strummer, Jimmy Pursey and Johnny Rotten.

Near the end of their set, though, things started to get crazy as “D-Bo,” the drummer of the Displeased, wandered in, sat down and passed out. Someone dragged him outside to wake him up enough to play, but I was told not to worry, that he would do fine — and it was true. He didn’t miss a beat. The whole set was awesome, with a great mix of their own songs like “Through With You” and “If the Punx Are United,” and covers by Billy Bragg, The Casualties, The Ramones and more.

A lot of the audience didn’t seem to want to move, but the others tried their best to make up for it, fighting for a microphone to sing with any and every song. They were cut short because of time and told they only had one more song as they were about to start an original called “Punk Rock Goddess” so they finished with a fast version of “Blitzkrieg Bop” instead. As they were putting away the drumset, someone noticed that D-Bo apparently missed the cymbal a few times: There was blood splattered all over it from where he ripped open a knuckle. He didn’t stop playing, though. It didn’t seem like anything could have stopped him.

The Sods took over the stage then and sounded like a faster version of the Mekons, and then Red Light City came on, a new band featuring ex-members of Terminal Rut and Wasteland DC. Their sound was more like early punk than anything else, especially when they covered “Boston Babies” by Slaughter and the Dogs. Overall, the show was great, especially with the different styles; maybe it was an indicator of what is still to come for the new venue.