Counterfeit

Anchor, Changing Names, Over It, Staring Back and Counterfeit
The Epicenter, San Diego, CA
July 31, 2000
By: Wynona Ryder 
Pics By: Wynona Ryder    

            Tiny, diminutive, pequeno; these are the adjectives chosen to create the perfect little venue.  But then another ingredient was added; punk.  Oh, wasn't that creative.  The Epicentre in San Diego has a shitty sound system and those controlling it didn't particularly seem to care about the show.  The vocals were way too low all night but hey, get over it (subliminal message).  There were all of 20 people in the crowd.  The males consisted mainly of members of the bands playing and the few females were teenie bopper groupies.  No moshing this evening.  Aww; so sad.

            When I walked in, the first band, Anchor, was starting its set.  They were a great opening band.  Kaleb, the shoeless guitarist, pulled off some hard but melodious tones in songs like "Sunshine" and "Pops(?)" and provided simply lovely backup vocals.  The singer, Matt, had a lot of good clean punk energy knocking JBL's off the stage.  At least someone was dancing.  Anchor warmed the evening up nicely.

            Enough about them lets bag on Shannon.  Second up tonight was Changing Names.  Todd, Todd, Todd threw down on his six string.  This boy can really play.  He tore out some hard ass punk that really made the band.  Completely ambidextrous and quite happy Jeff tossed some great beats and Ryan did some damn nice bass work considering he's only been playing for four months.  Another two months and he'll be Flea.  I love a chick in a band as much as the next horny guy but Shannon is fucking tone-deaf even for a punk singer.  This sparkly skirted charm school reject was kind of like the "H" on the hood of a Hyundai.  It chills in the middle with no contribution to the car but you don't take it off because it'd fuck up the paint.  Maybe they could find a little jaguar to put there instead.

            Leave your Zoloft at home kiddies and let these guys help you get Over It.  GAWD damn I'm funny.  Over It was the third band of the night and really the highlight of the event.  Emo maybe but most definitely punk.  Every one of these guys is a pro at his instrument and knows it.  It's rare to see a group with great chemistry, stage presence, and the ability to fucking rock.  Peter spit out gorgeous lyrics in songs like "Skipping Stones" and "Welcome to Virginia." The three on strings flowed like my sister on her period with hard and fast beats to keep the blood moving.  Perhaps it is whiny but can you feel it?!  I'm asking CAN you feel it??! (you weren't there but just say yes)  Watching drummer James's facial expressions was enough to keep your eyes glued to the stage.  Oh, isn't he a nutty nut.  Even the funky jam sessions while Peter switched guitars kicked ass.  Naturally, I lead the line to the merch table so I could take a piece of these guys home.

            Next on the agenda was the aptly named Staring Back.  A disc could never do these guys justice since looking at them is half the fun.  Red fro'd psycho insano drummer Nick, crack addict looking vocalist Matt, large flush faced Ryan on guitar, guitarist Jeff who I call Wolverine, and pimply stoic bassist Victor are definite punk rocker eye candy.  The needs an ass woopin sound system didn't let much of the vocals through so, unfortunately, I have no idea what any of the tunes were about.  Their set was ornamented with some tear shit up work by Wolverine as the crowd stood still and stared.

            The final band was Counterfeit.  This is a nice clean cut group except for the tattied up, pierced up singer/bassist Justin.  Let's throw around that peachy word "emo" once again to describe this punk.  Counterfeit are as disgruntled as your typical punk band but much more depressed about it with songs like "Regarding Regret" and "Completely Incomplete."  They combine very smooth melodies with great vocals, lead and backup.  Finally, these guys were the one's to bitch about the shitty sound being pumped out by the speakers but was there even a sound guy there to respond with a go screw yourselves little punk bastards?  No, because he had already gone home; much more subtle "f you."

            Although all the bands had a certain charm, Over It and Counterfeit both kicking much boo-teh, it was a good thing this show was on a Monday.  It would have been a pretty sad weekend night being booze-less and bitch-less.

            - Wynona Ryder