Skyler Wells

The show was a deluge of chunky riffs, raw-throated choruses, chugga-lugging bass lines and “Oi! Oi! Oi!” sing-alongs. Which is a good thing.

Held at Astorias Shively Hall last Saturday night, the concert was the first of its kind in six months. The room was packed tightly with all kinds of adolescent underground riffraff, all there to see what the bands had to offer.

The opening band, Lucky Sevens, pounded out a set of Ska-infused streetpunk powered by sheer adrenaline. The four Astorians worked up a good sweat to the manic beat of their static-drenched duel-guitar speed-punk. It was highly professional and reminiscent of both cutting-edge punk acts like Rancid and classics such as The Ramones. True showmen through and through, the remainder band did an improvised version of Wars 1975 funk hit, “Lowrider” to keep the crowd entertained while one guitar player dealt with a technical difficulty. Lucky Sevens played off of the crowd well and succeeded in keeping the energy level high.

The next band to take the makeshift floor-stage was the Springfield, Ore., group Streetlight Cardiac. The four high-energy musicians channeled many of the same influences as Lucky Sevens but boasted a darker sound more based on a nihilistic worldview and barked by an angry-looking bald guy. Their pummeling riffs were built upon spooky-sounding minor chords that reminded me of a cross between the Misfits and Black Flag at times, but with faster drumming. Oh yeah, and the bass player had a mohawk at least a foot tall. That was cool.

The final band of the evening was another Springfield punk act known as Ugly Litter. Gone was the anger and bitterness present in the music of the last band. Ugly Litter played a familiar brand of upbeat punk chock full of great big choruses that every amped-up kid in the room could sing along to by the end of the song. This was music based on three things: Strong melody, a healthy sense of humor and pure musical velocity.

Overall, I was quite impressed by the evenings musical offerings. I feel that the music scene in Astoria is still limping its way to its former glory, but Saturdays bands were good and the show was fun, and fun is the bottom line, after all.

Given a year or two, all three of the bands could look very comfortable on the stage of the illustrious Vans Warped Tour, the signifier of all things cool in the weird world of punk rock. The groups were very professional on all fronts, and with dedication they very well may go far.