October 20, 2008
Nukes!
There was a point during the Nukes concert at Blueberry Hill in which I looked around and realized that within about 20-feet were members of the past St. Louis bands: Stir, the Unconscious, Pale Divine, the Stranded Lads, E.J. Quit, Corporate Humour, Black Sand Hand, the Urge, Sinister Dane, Getaway Car, Ulcer Inc., Life without Wayne, Blank Space, L.O.V.E., the Treeweasels, the Finn Brothers, Big Fun and others, I'm sure. A group like the Nukes would bring the old heads out from hibernation and it was wonderful to see those faces in one room.
The good news from the Nukes show: though the band wasn't able to make the announcement from state (more in a moment), the group will be opening for the aforementioned Pale Divine at the Pageant on Dec. 29.
The bad news, though not too bad, in its own way: after racing through a vocal-less "Going Nowhere," a good one-hour-and-change into their set, the power was cut off on the Nukes, undoubtedly due to the fact that gallons of ice and water were thrown at singer Packy Reynolds during the performance, along with a tree's-worth of paper. The stage resembled, well, a mess, by the time that the juice was cut. Admittedly, Blueberry Hill's Duck Room isn't the old Furst Rock, but there's something kinda not very rock-ish about cutting off a punk band because of excessive fun. Then again, there's something very rock-ish about the Nukes (and, more importantly, their fans) acting so crazy that the principal had to step in to restore order.
Thanks for the nostalgia trip boys, way to rip through "464" and see you over the holidays!