After waiting on two good friends from out of town to arrive at my house, I headed to the Clubhouse, a DIY super-secret RVA show spot, around nine o’clock to find a thin crowd steadily forming in the grunged-out venue.  High-fives were shared between friends while waiting on the first band to play, and I cracked a fresh Natural Ice that I had scraped out of the caverns of my fridge.  Shows at the Clubhouse just get keep getting better and better, and tonight would be no different.  The graffiti covered walls, sticky black floors, and cigarette stained couches are the perfect backdrop for a punk rock show of last night’s caliber.

Our New Nation, one of Richmond’s premier pop-punk outfits, took to the floor right at ten o’clock to open the night’s show.  What we experienced set the bar for Tuesday’s performances.  In a Ramones-eque fury ONN pumped out roughly six super catchy pop-punk jams in just under ten minutes, hardly stopping to grab a quick breath or chug of water.  As the set continued more and more show goers became interested in the tunes, gauged by the increasing number of head nods noted around the room.  Standing directly behind ONN’s guitarist Zach, Brandon, the drummer of Teenage Bottlerocket, stood attentively with the expression “this rocks” painted across his clean cut, Ray-Ban wearing face.  After finishing the fast paced original set, Our New Nation played three sing along covers back to back to back, resulting in mic grabs, loud shouts, and intense bro-down moments across the room.  A highlight for me was their cover of the Ergs classic “Most Violent Rap Group,” a quintessential fist pumping pop-punk sing along.  Our New Nation is gaining success in the growing pop-punk scene in Richmond, bringing throwback to greats like the Pink Razors.  With performances this good on big name shows, ONN is surely slated to become a more recognized name in Richmond punk.

Next up on the lineup was Petersburg glam punks, The Blackheart Saints, a sunglass bearing, leather jacket wearing four-piece.  In true pop-punk fashion the Saints pumped out around five or six songs just shy of about twelve minutes.  While the set was quick and to the point, the crowd wasn’t too involved in the performance, trading head nods for stagnant drabs off of their warming beers.  The southern style twang on vocals mixed with repetitive guitar solos and forced riffs just wasn’t doing it for me at this point in the show.  Perhaps if the group had opened before Our New Nation they would have gained a higher level of crowd support, as the bar seemed to be set a bit too high.  All things being said, the band played fast and well, it just didn’t seem to be my, or much of the crowd’s brand of pop-punk.

Following the last local band’s performance, Reno Nevada trio Cobra Skulls took to the stage.  Cobra Skulls have been gaining success in the underground punk scene for quite some time, and just released their second critically acclaimed full-length last month.  From the first song “The Cobra and The Man Whore” the band seemed completely energetic and passionate about the performance, clearly drawing inspiration from members of the crowd shouting back the lyrics in their faces.  Within the next five songs the Skulls played three more of my favorite cuts, “Faith is a Cobra”, “Cobra Skullifornia”, and “Back to the Youth”, a new track off their full-length ‘American Rubicon’.  With each song more of the crowd became attentive, from head nods, to fist pumps, to an occasional energized jump.  Considering the quality of the performance I was surprised that everyone in the room wasn’t as stoked on the set as the Skulls’ die hard fans were.  Cobra Skulls continue to find an original sound, roughly described as a mix of straight-up punk, folk-punk, and rockabilly/reggae influences.  It is always refreshing to see a road hungry, original band get a decent following in Richmond.  You could tell from their fervent expressions that they loved playing every chord despite the entire room not exploding with each new track.  After belting out several more sing alongs from the albums ‘Sitting Army’ and ‘American Rubicon’, the Skulls finished with “Hasta Los Cobra Skulls Siempre!” and made way for the final performance of the night.

The headliner of the show was Laramie Wyoming’s Teenage Bottlerocket, in my opinion of the best bands in pop-punk history.  With catchy songs about girls, breakups, denials, Rambo movies, and aspirations to become bigger than Kiss, these guys are the definition of modern pop-punk.  As soon as Cobra Skulls had moved their equipment out, Bottlerocket loaded in quickly to satisfy the attentive crowd’s cheers.  Setting up on the floor instead of the stage was a gutsy yet appreciated move by the group, constantly risking taking an accidental microphone to the teeth from the enthralled crowd.  TBR opened the set with their new single “Skate or Die” off of their brand new album ‘They Came from the Shadows’ on Fat Wreck Chords.  The band quickly followed with “Radio”, a cut from their first album as a solidified lineup entitled ‘Total’ on Red Scare Records.  From the first drum beat the crowd was falling over top of each other, shouting every lyric at the top of their lungs.  This trend would continue for the rest of the set, as at least half of the room seemed to know the majority of Bottlerocket’s lyrics.  The set consisted of about sixty minutes of pop-punk bliss, ranging the entire catalog of the band’s best material.  Highlights for me included “Blood Bath at Burger King”, “Repeat Offender”, “Stupid Games”, “Skate or Die”, and “In The Basement”.  In true Ramones-core fashion they belted these songs out back to back in at least four song rock blocks, with just enough time in between tracks to shout 1-2-3-4! or click in the drums.  From a first hand account, standing just feet in front of the drummer, I couldn’t believe the intense speed in which he played the high-hat.  I have seen at least 300 bands in my life and have never seen anyone come close to his pace.  Throw in the four song blocks and the fact that the band plays only lighting fast down strokes on guitar, and it is easy to see that they are one of the fasted playing, literally hardest working bands to date.  The crowd continued to soak up every cut TBR threw at them, always pining for more, screaming out song titles in the rare intermittences between tracks.  As the clock ticked close to one o’clock the sweat soaked pop-punk legends wrapped things up with “Rebound” and called it quits.  I had ridiculously high expectations for the show and Bottlerocket hands down delivered.  This show ruled; period.

By Derek Shelton.

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