88 Fingers Louie @ Foufs

I was overcome by a strange giddiness that I had not felt since the first time I saw Nomeansno live. 88 Fingers Louie is one of the many bands that I loved when I was sixteen but never had the chance to see in a live setting. This concert marks the end of those years as this will be the last band on the teenage bucket list of groups to see live (minus bands that broke up before I knew them, like Operation Ivy). 

Walking into Foufounes I could not help but try to figure out what the crowd would have looked like fifteen years ago when 88 Fingers Louie first released Behind Bars on Fat Wreck Chords. To my surprise it would have probably looked the same: there were baggy pants and NOFX shirts en masse. There were the kids (who can now be called adults) that bought the 88 Fingers tour shirt and immediately put it on over the clothes they were already wearing (which I still think is a big faux pas). The only immediate difference I could notice with the crowd now versus the crowd of the past is a whole lot more bald spots.

There were three opening bands, Street Kids on Acid (who never even heard of Rich Kids on LSD), Prevenge and Brixton Robbers. The line-up should have had Prevenge going on before 88 Fingers but due to a prima donna attitude, Prevenge gave up their spot to the Brixton Robbers.

By the end of the three openers I was left with one thing to write: Prevenge killed it. These guys (and girl) are a seriously fun band. They were by far the tightest band of the night (on par with 88 Fingers) and much like the headliners, every song and every motion just showed that they wanted to do nothing more but play some punk rock and have fun while they were at it. Much to my surprise Prevenge’s guitarist was none other than Chris Snelgrove, who was the guitarist for Flacid (and later All the Answers) back when I was sixteen so it was quite funny to see him onstage all these years later, as if everything was in the exact place it should be, like somehow nothing had changed. I was not the only one who thought that Prevenge was a force to be reckoned with because, as I was able to joke with them about, they sold out (literally they sold every album, vinyl and digital recording they had). As for the other bands I think that the old saying of ‘if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all’ works best in this case.

By the time 88 Fingers Louie took to the stage the venue was packed. The band tore through a wide array of their old songs and it quickly became apparent that the majority of the crowd was only familiar with their debut '95 album. There were however fans like Jee-P (Hold a Grudge) who knew every word to every song and seemed to spend the entire show crowd surfing in front of the stage (which he does at every show).

At first I must admit I was disappointed by Denis Buckley’s vocals because they were so smooth and croonish,  unlike the raspy voice of old. This disappointment quickly dropped as his voice retained its callousness after a few songs. The pit grew extensively and before anyone realized it, had taken over half of the venue. The only thing that I can say that the band lacked was movement. Besides the guitarist there was a lot of stagnancy on stage which Buckley made up for with in-between song banter. One story he chose that struck me as odd is that Fat Wreck Chords had released a Wrecktrospective with 88 tracks, and not one of them was an 88 Fingers Louie song. It’s no wonder that that the next song started riddled with expletives about their former label and its owner Fat Mike (NOFX).

In all it was a great show and as underwhelmed I am by reunion shows, this time was somehow different. It did not seem like 88 Fingers was doing it for a last hurrah of monetary gain, it seemed like they were doing it for one last run of some good times and it showed in their music. As the last song drilled through the crowd I was left feeling a bit like the kid who got too close to someone dancing... knocked out.

Mat “Runt” Barrot

You can download a copy of Prevenge’s It Happens All the Time album through Juicebox Dot Com for free at the following site: http://juiceboxdotcom.com/recordingco/jb016/