From left to right: of the Powerknobs — Gaynor, Andrew, Bill, Ross, and Matt from Shooting Blanks.
Prior to the this Sunday gig, Hilger and I were holed up in a Rockford hotel getting smashed for a couple of days. We were supposed to play the Divine Cup in the city but the entire venue closed down. We already had the hotel booked for this scheduled show and figured fuck it, we’ll go anyways even if we can’t play.
So I wasn’t feeling all that hot as I finally got to the club Sunday night. There were 3 bands booked: us, Shooting Blanks and another band who I knew nothing about called Dead by Midnight. Their name sounded cool and I hoped they would be dark and heavy. Shooting Blanks is a great bunch of fellows who have a picture of a cock on their website for their drummer, Dan’s, pic. They offered us the show thru Fellowship of the Punk. Well we all took seperate cars and got to the club. We loaded in and I had a few words with Charles from Ratbag Hero who runs the joint. Well, he runs it on the ‘Distortion Sundays’; the rest of the week its a classy type of nightclub where they probably have the hot chicks that would laugh and spit on you. Well maybe not you, but probably me. Well Charles is a great person and very fucking friendly and nice. HE explained that there were actaully going to be 4 bands — The Fonzarellies from Omaha, Nebraska were in town and were personal friends of his. So now we were going to play 4th. I wasn’t exactly excited about that but as I told Charles, he is the boss and I wouldn’t question his authority. We are not some kind of fucking rock star band nor am I an ego maniac. We are just glad to have the show. So we loaded in our shit and I sat down to drink some water in an attempt to clear my fuzzy and clouded albeit technically sober mind. Much to my own joy, they projected ‘The Chinese Connection’ on the wall, which I very much enjoyed as well as the numerous AFI albums which played throughout the night. Charles hooked the band up with 3 free drinks per member, and 1/2 off all drinks after that. Then, the opportunity of a lifetime. Charles informed us that Dead by Midnight still had not showed. He said that if they weren’t there in another 10 minutes, we should just set up and we could play first. Thank god, the band actaully did show up as we were sound checking, too late for them. That band ended up being about 45 min. late to load in, then just left when they were informed that they could not bring their underage girlfriends into the club. Fucking losers.
Well we went into our set eventually without a set list for what I believe was the 1st time ever. My guitar was also having a bit of trouble staying in tune as we opened with ‘Hangin Around’ by Screeching Weasel. We ripped thru a nice mix of covers and originals, playing ‘Wild Colonial Boy’ by the great Powerknobs when I saw that 4 of the 5 members had showed up for the show. By the time our set ended I was quite sweaty and very short of breath. I eventually recovered enough to suck down 6 or 7 vodka/redbulls. That got me really fired up.
Next was Shooting Blanks. Their drummer Dan (the cock) had had a long discussion with me prior to our set about, of all things, King Diamond. To make things even stranger, he didn’t seem to be familliar with very common punk acts like Screeching Weasel who the DJ was playing inbetween bands. He told me a crazy story about one of his friends who was so shaken by listening to too much King Diamond that he threw all his albums and tapes away in the middle of the night because he didn’t want them in his house. Well back to their set. They raged on for a good set, their singer, Matt, was throwing shapes with the best of them. They had the twin guitar attack and Matt blazed some nice leads to add some originality to their pop punk sound. And also, he played a Jackson guitar, and everyone knows I have much love for Jacksons.
Last up was the touring band, The Fonzarellies. Hilger is a #1 Motley Crue fan and after repeated forced listenings, I have become a fan myself. Well the singer of the Fonzarellies looked just like fucking Nikki Sixx, from his black eyeliner to wild hair and tons of fucking tattoos. He even had the sunglasses in his hair to round out the ensamble. They busted out some wicked fucking guitars and amps. The singer asked the crowd as they were sound checking “does it sound OK?” to which I replied, “No, its too quiet. Turn it up!” although it was loud as a motherfucker to begin with. But they were glad to oblige me and crank it up to 11. They closed with a 10 min. version of one of their songs that really kicked ass. Their singer was trying to talk to us(the crowd) but we really couldn’t unfortunately understand him as the vocals were too distorted and evreything was so fucking loud.
Another highlight of the night was when I walked to one of many 24 hour Mexican resturants in the area to score some grub before I started drinking as I was fucking famished. I ordered 2 steak tacos and the guy asked if I wanted everything on those. I told him I did, but oddly enough their idea of ‘everything’ was basically just onions and cilantro. Not that that is entirely bad, I fucking ate it all anyways. And after the Fonzarellies were done, we were all sitting around getting drunk and the DJ was spinning some old school punk rock like the Stooges. Hilger handed me the new Powerknobs CD which Rob had just scored and told me to give it to the DJ to play. HE was very skeptical at first but eventually played ‘I’m Bored’ much to the surprise of the Knobs who were present. That DJ even got a little silly, making use of the night clubs DJ’s gear like a flanger which he kicked in on the later half of the song.
–satan165, low profile
Low Profile review of show Sunday March 30th, 2003 at Bigwig
With Shooting Blanks and the Fonzarellies
This was one of the funnest shows I’ve played. I was expecting to feel like shit cause Williams and I were “coming down from a 48 hour bender”. No shit. We partied our asses off at a hotel in Rockford. We ate a lot, drank a lot and did other …um…….stuff………..
So I was feeling surprisingly well considering the situation. I’m not sure about the big bossman though. I think he felt better after he had a few drinks in him.
So we meet up at Rob’s at 7 to load up. We all drove separate. When we got to the Bigwig, we met Charles who was extremely friendly and all around nice. So we load in and were due to play last which sucked but oh well.
I’m not sure exactly what happened but we ended up playing first which was fine with the three of us. We played Nature of the Way Things Work for our soundcheck. Then we just chilled till a little after 9 and then started our set.
4 of the 5 Powerknobs showed up. Thanks for the support guys. And our biggest and loudest fan, Jessica, was there. We didn’t make a set list whatsoever and just called out songs as we felt like it. So our set was something like this:
Hangin Around (originally by Screeching Weasel)
Low Pro Pt. 1
Wild Colonial Boy (originally by the Powerknobs)
Solitaire
Zamboni
Figure It Out
Stabbed In the Back (originally by Youth of Today)
Take A Stand (also by Youth of Today)
Mr. Pig (requested by Jessica)
Summertime (originally by Crimpshrine)
Hot Mom
It was a good set. We ripped thru the songs. Rob said he couldn’t hear the bass whatsoever so that sucked for him but I didn’t notice any major fuck ups besides me not being able to recognize Figure It Out. I remember Williams just started the song and it starts with guitar and I was trying to think of all the songs that start with guitar so I’m going thru them, Hate? Grudge? Oh, shit. Its Figure It Out. So I started on B. Went to A. And then finally realized the first note was G#. I’m dumb like that.
Shooting Blanks were up next. These guys were great. We talked with Dan (the dick with glasses) for a while before the show. We talked a lot about music and bands and shit. He told me that King Diamond was also in Mercyful Fate. So u learn something new everyday. I’ll have to check that shit out.
They rocked for sure. They were 4 piece. 2 guitars. Very fun and energetic to watch. We heckled and yelled back and forth at them. The song about Britney was hysterical. I wanna cum on her tits too! And Matt, I got your back, man! U guys r down with Low Profile. Thanks for the show. I got a burned CD from Matt with 8 songs on it. Props.
Up next were the Fonzarellies from Omaha, Nebraska. These guys were great. I was truly impressed. They were also 4 piece, same lineup. The singer was sleeved up with tats and sported a Social D shirt. I requested a Social D song and he said that he knew how to play some Social D but the band didn’t. Oh well. These guys were awesome. Very professional, very talented, etc. I got their CD and 2 comps and hooked them up with some greens for their 7 hour drive home. I also gave them all the money that was in the donations bucket. Touring bands gotta get paid and they always get our share of the profits. Thats a Low Profile custom.
So the whole night was great. I got pretty drunk. They played great music like AFI, the Misfits, Clash, Bouncing Souls, Screeching Weasel and Williams had the DJ guy play the Powerknobs CD. They also played Bruce Lee’s the Chinese Connection up on the wall and then later had some Japanimation shit on which was cool to watch while your drunk and chillin. I had a blast. I hope everyone else did too. Good bands, good music, and a Bruce Lee movie. Fucking A.
