Show review: Swingin' Utters, The Disgustingtons at Juke Joint - Sept 11, 2009

Punk Rawk was alive and well at Anaheim's Juke Joint last night. Missed the first band, but saw the other bands Dirty Filthy Mugs, The Disgustingtons, O.C.A., The Henchmen and of course, Swingin' Utters.

All played quality punk, and I'm particularly biased towards the Utters because a) they are good friends of mine and b) they opened with Windspitting Punk, which is a riff written by yours truly. (I feel like such a proud papa!)

I was really impressed with The Disgustingtons. From-the-heart/gut punk rock delivered with passion and totally unpretentious. Great riffs and vocals. Gonna go catch these guys again for sure. Disgustingtons remind me why I fell in love with seeing music in clubs again. An expression of humanity if for no other reason than to reflect their personal lives, and because they are driven to play for the pure reason of just that, they HAVE to play. Passion, heart, rock. Doesn't get much better than that.

Utters, in my biased opinion, are always great. The crowd was the real star of the show, though. Eating up each line sung by Johnny, the audience was a throbbing mass of enthusiasm, energy, pumping fists, shouting sing-alongs, flying beer and booze and pure elation. By the end of the set a few were on stage singing along, as if those songs weren't just the Utters anymore, but had become everyone's. I was floored to see how much songs written by my old pals from Santa Cruz have become to mean so much for so many folks. I could tell the Utters just loved the enthusiasm. That Juke Joint, they are INTO it! :)