Subhumans @ Knitting Factory

April 14th: I love punk shows, especially real punk shows. People constantly talk shit about old geezer punk bands - fuck those people. Bands like Subhumans invented punk and they play it better then any whiny 17-year-old can. When I saw that the Subhumans were playing I instantly bought tickets because I still regret missing the last NYC UK Subs show last year.

One thing I love about bands like Subhumans is the crowd they draw. I love to see the 50-year-old crusty's still rocking the purple mohawks and punk gear. Then standing 5 feet away you see a 13-year-old with the exact same shit going on. Some say that's sad but I think it's a lot more sad seeing an old punk wearing a suit carrying a breifcase.

So after I scoped out the crowd I moved up front to snap a few pics. The band took the stage and I was surprised by how good they looked. Most of the old school punk bands look like walking corpses but Subhumans looked alive. They start the set and of course a pit opens up but I was surprised by it's tameness. I mean, everyone was moving but it wasn't nearly as violent as I expected.

Still I was having trouble holding back the 300 pounder in front of me and take pictures at the same time so I headed upstairs about 5 songs in. The show was much more enjoyable from the balcony. The dance floor was a lot of fun to watch from above. Everyone was having a good time down there, if I wasn't so sore from the Gogol show I might have joined them.

By punk standards Subhumans are fucking excellent musicians, you really notice it live. The bass player is just plain sick. He was playing some very creative shit and wasn't just following the guitar the whole time. What make Subhumans better then the rest is the vocals - Dick is the god damn man. His voice is so powerful and angry. It's the definition of punk vocals - snarling English venom. The only problem is between songs you have no fucking clue what he's talking about. Although I did manage to catch an anti-deodorant rant and an anti-beauty line.

The set came to an end after a fairly short time. It was clear an encore was in the works, I mean they didn't even play "Subvert City". Still I was always under the impression that old school punk bands were anti-encore. Nonetheless the chants of "one more song" got the band back onstage.

At some point between the end and the encore some goon got onstage and grabbed the mic. He said something along the lines of "this next song is called Lick My Balls" and then pointed to his balls. It was a little funny just because he was so drunk. Then someone ushered him offstage and he dove into the crowd expecting to be caught but everyone moved - it was like something in a movie. This big jerk-off did a face plant on the ground - it was fucking hilarious.

With them came an accordion player and another singer. They were announced but I couldn't understand what the fuck Dick said. I'm pretty sure they were people I would know of but I didn't recognize them. Anyway, they all played a really fucking badass version of "Work-Rest-Play-Die". After that the other dudes left the stage and the Subhumans played "Subvert City" (there might have been a song in between) and the place went fucking crazy. They kept playing after "Subvert" unfortunately - that would have been a great song to close with.

This was a great fucking show, in particular "Subvert", "Work-Rest-Play-Die", "Society", "Religious Wars" and of course... "Lick My Balls"

Subhumans

"Work-Rest-Play-Die"

MP3:
Religious Wars - Subhumans