Show Recap: Death By Stereo @ Marquis

Isaac and I went down to the Marquis to catch punk rockers Death By Stereo the other night, us and about 50 other people total. Death By Stereo has never really had a big following, at least nowhere else except their home of SoCal, and every time we see them in Denver there's never a big turnout. This night was the same, especially since the show was only announced a few weeks ago, and there wasn't anything but local bands on the tickets (Killings Kings, Crooked Ways, and Boldtype).

i don't want to spend too much time on the local bands, but they weren't impressive. Crooked Ways seems to have an identity crisis and can't tell what kind of punk band they want to be. not to mention they really have no talent on guitar which makes the music way too predictable and boring. Boldtype is sort of like your non-serious punkers like NOFX, Blink-182 or the Vandals. I don't like those bands, and i don't like Boldtype.

Death By Stereo on the other hand is amazing! I don't know why people don't get into these guys, they're just amazing musicians and very energetic. They have a punk sound, with a big dash of metal thrown in thanks to the finger-tapping of the guitarist. even finger-tapping while having a High Life poured down his throat by lead singer Efrem. impressive.

Anyway, Efrem is one of the best frontmen i've ever seen. not only are his vocals pretty good, he is quite a showman, always running around and making ridiculous faces. He is great at passing the mic, thankfully, and that gave Isaac and I a chance to share our amazing vocals with everyone. He runs around in the pit, mic chord and all, making people have to duck to keep from being decapitated. And he's always pointing at people and making eye contact, which i thought he was only doing with his friends until he gave me the wink the the gun!

They played all of the usual songs and two news, they're currently finished recording in Fort Collins. They also playing Emo Holocaust and mentioned that they had re-recorded the song for the new album. Maris the Great was also on hand, and his introduction was hilarious. the last time DBS played Denver was about 3 years ago, and Maris was understandably upset that they hadn't been back sooner. He announced that he was planning on "killing" DBS the next night before their Colorado Springs show, and that we were the last audience to see them alive. If you don't Maris, he's an old punk rocker, dressed in crazy garb, and he interviews bands before killing them. i don't really know what else to say about that.
Anyway DBS played a longer set than usual, it felt like they played for an hour, but i think that had to do with the fact that 2 separate fights broke out. This is what i love about the punk/hardcore scene, and what most people don't know or understand. While these shows can get pretty crazy, and there are bodies running into each other and people sometimes getting hurt, its almost never with intent and never encouraged, by the band or the fans. As soon as the first fight broke out (i'm assuming the combination of PBR Tall Boys and more room than usual due to a small turnout) Efrem stopped the band immediately and called for the fight to stop. he stated that if you wanted to fight you had to fight JJ the bassist for the band. He made the point that we needed to be united and together we needed to fight "them". After his little speech the band busted right back into the song as if they simply pressed pause.

Probably like 1.5 songs later another little fight broke out a little to the side of the room and Efrem stopped the band again. He asked everyone what the deal was, and stated that they just wanted to have some fun and that there was no reason to be fighting. This is a common view by most punk bands and a lot of hardcore bands. While the music encourages people to run around and go crazy, it doesn't encourage fighting or punching people. if you don't want to be bumped or kicked, you need to move further away from the stage, and if you're looking to throw punches to purposely hurt people, well, you're going to have to answer to the bands, or a lot of the band's friends. If you want to hurt people go to a Slipknot concert, get drunk and high, and get your jock-mosh on.

Anyway, DBS was great. They finished their set and left the stage. Thankfully they didn't play an encore because they are lame these days. Instead the next thing i know Efrem has his arm around me and Isaac and is talking to everyone still left in the pit. We talked to him about their upcoming show with Suicidal Tendencies and why they hadn't played Denver in such a long time. It was pretty cool to get to talk to the band so easily, another great aspect of punk rock and small venues.

I'm sure Death By Stereo will be back in Denver really soon since they'll have a new record out pretty soon and i'm sure they'll tour it for the rest of the year. Here's a song off their live record Death Alive:


Death Alive

Set List (in no particular order):
The Plague
No Cuts, No Buts, No Coconuts
Beyond the Blinders
Looking Out For #1
Forget Regret
This Curse of Days
Sing Along With the Patriotic Punks
Shh, it'll Be Our Little Secret
Let Down and Alone
Emo Holocaust
I Give My Life
Holding $60 on a Burning Bridge
Wasted Words (last song)

2 New songs that i don't know the names of