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Kick Out the Jams

The Holy Moleys, Against Me! at The Rock, May 5

There's nothing like a bad band followed by a good band to remind you that, even amid the ever-quickening pace of modern life, patience remains the ultimate of virtues.

In this case, the bad band was The Holy Moleys. Featuring members of local bands Amber Halo and the otherwise talented FFI, The Holy Moleys purport to play a sort of Dead Kennedys-esque satirical punk, pointing a mocking finger at the pretense and hypocrisy of contemporary American life. Unfortunately, it's an agenda unachieved. Fronted by a priest collar-sporting no-talent named Jonny Christ, the band's 40-minute-plus set was an unbalanced mishmash of sophomoric lyrics (highlighted, perhaps, by the persistent chorus "Bee-eer, I want more beer") and belated social criticism ("George W. Bush. The `W' stands for, `What the fuck is going on in Iraq?'"). As the majority of the audience rolled their eyes and snickered into $1 drinks, The Holy Moleys provided a perfect example of the difference between being laughed with and being laughed at.

Thankfully, Florida-based anarcho-punkers Against Me! managed to resurrect the evening from The Holy Moleys' long, drawn-out floundering. Backed by a modest troop of hippie-fied superfans (including a crew of teens that drove up from Arizona and ended up watching the show through the front door), Against Me! ripped through an interactive set of romping, stomping punk rock that lived up to the pledge of its song "Reinventing Axl Rose": "We want a band that plays loud and hard every night and doesn't care how many are counted in at the door." In that spirit, singer/guitarist Tom Gabel bounced across the stage with childlike zeal--even plunging into the Rock's sunken pit (guitar in hand) for the duration of the band's final song.

But perhaps the strangest and most refreshing part of the evening was the ongoing interaction between band and crowd--a sort of sing-along, clap-along call and response that seemed more apt in a Baptist church than at a seedy punk show. Pausing at designated intervals, the members of Against Me! would go silent as the jumping and jostling crowd belted out lyrics in a sort of reverent frenzy (at one point, the drummer even stepped out from behind his kit to howl along). Truth be told, it was a scene unlike any I've ever witnessed and, ultimately, a more than sufficient return on the time I invested in The Holy Moleys.--Newt Briggs