Girl at the Rock Shows

My gut told me that I had to be at Cloudland on Friday night. I honestly couldn’t tell you why. I was going in blind. I had only ever heard of two of the three bands performing. There was one band on the bill that I had never even seen the name of before. I don’t know what it was, but I was excited to see why my heart had taken me to Cloudland on Friday, and was optimistic because, at the end of the day, the concert Gods rarely lead me astray.

Bermuda Squares was the only local act and the first to take the small stage at Cloudland. I swear I had seen this band before, but looking back at my archives, it appears I was mistaken. Whether or not Friday night was my first time seeing this band, I was in love. They hit hard and fast with their garage-rock anthems. I loved the slight sense of grit and fuzz that reigned supreme throughout their quick set. It really laid down the path for where the night was going to head, but also went off on little tangents here and there that dabbled into everything from indie-pop to more punk-feeling vibes. There was something almost angsty about the delivery of some of their songs that had me hooked. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, and, honestly, their music was far from aggressive as a whole, but there were these moments and sparks of rage that seemed to glisten in the muted stage lighting every once in a while. Between those moments and the amount of fun that you could clearly see these musicians having with each other throughout the set, Bermuda Squares was the perfect way to kick off this late Friday night show.

I was excited as I saw Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops set up. I knew, from the flyer, that they were from Des Moines, Iowa (my hometown), but it didn’t really feel real until I saw a ZZZ Records sticker on one of their cases. ZZZ Records was one of the record shops I worked at growing up, and it holds a very special place in my heart, so just seeing that made my heart flutter, but also made me a bit snotty. Was this band cool enough to be sporting a sticker of this record store that means so much to me? The honest answer- YES! Like Bermuda Square, this band was punchy and punky in all of the right ways. Their songs were short but packed a punch and were a perfect assault on your ears. From whirling guitar solos to super fun and anthemic sing-along styled vocals, Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops had me stuck right in the palm of their hand, and I honestly never wanted to leave. Their banter was the perfect blend of awkward and energized, which only added a personal touch and flavor to their performance. When I left Des Moines, Iowa, back in 2007, the scene was dying, and every time I go back to visit, I feel like it’s dead, but seeing this group perform gave me hope that maybe my hometown isn’t dead yet. Or, perhaps it is, and that’s why Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops were playing in Minneapolis. Either way, they made me so proud to be a Des Moines native for the first time in, well, forever.

I knew the name Scared of Chaka. I know that this is a legendary band, but I couldn’t place their songs or their sound. That didn’t matter. My heart told me that missing this show would be a mistake, and as soon as these legends took the stage, I knew that I had made the right decision. Scared of Chaka is a punk band formed in 1993. They broke up years ago, but their legacy has endured, and they are often cited as a significant influence on many bands. I wish they were one of my major influences, or, in better terms, that they were a band I followed closely, which meant that seeing them on Friday night for the first time in years meant the world to me, but I couldn’t. After talking with a buddy who was also at this show, I realized that I may have seen Scared of Chaka one time previously, but that was at a D4th of July celebration here in Minneapolis, and, truthfully, I was rarely sober for those events, so I’m not counting it. Long story short, I was thrilled to be seeing such juggernauts from the punk scene and, again, knew instantly that this was absolutely the show I was meant to be at on Friday night.

Sonically, I was getting a super pop-punk vibe from the vocal style, but more of a straight-up garage-punk feeling from the instrumentation. These two styles flowed together perfectly to create an energetic sound that was perfect for jumping and air punching, which is exactly what the audience around me was doing. From dad jokes to high jumps, this trio brought the music to life with their energy, but it was the energy of the audience that, at one point, made me just step back and take it all in. Sure, I wasn’t singing along to the old but classic songs that the band was playing, but everyone else was, and they were doing it with a sense of furious passion that was inescapable. Cloudland is not a large club by any means, but something about it on Friday night felt like a much bigger show than it actually was. I don’t know how to expand on that, other than to say there was a larger-than-life kind of energy emanating from the stage and the audience alike, making this a show that transformed this quaint and familiar venue into something new for me.

I like to take notes when I’m at shows. It helps me focus on certain moments throughout a show, but I didn’t take any notes on Friday night. It didn’t feel right. Something about this show felt like it was one of those shows where you just had to get lost in the moment, and that’s exactly what I did. Unfortunately, that means I feel like this review was a bit disjointed, and you still didn’t get a clear sense of what this show was like. I partially apologize for that, but I also think you should have been at this show because it was a great one.

Line Up:

Bermuda Squares

Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops

Scared of Chaka

Venue: Cloudland

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 42

Crowd Surfers- 0

Stage Divers- 0

Mosh-ability- 1 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On Me While Walking Around- $0

Broken Bones- None Noticed

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Nothing

Fights- None

Pukers- 0

Passed Out People- 0

Idiots Taken Out By Security – 0

How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember)-

Bermuda Squares – 0

Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops – 0

Scared of Chaka – Maybe 1 back in the day

Celebrity Sightings – None

Overall Score – 8 out of 10

Show on Deck — David Huckfelt / Murder By Death

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