Photos and Review by Jeff Palmucci
Galleries: Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies, The Defiant, Ultrabomb
Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies played Big Night Live last week with their first ever original track! Nah, just kidding, but so were they: joking around all night on this stop of their Let Us Play Your Party tour in support of their upcoming album Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies Blow it at Madison’s Quinceañera.
The punk superband never, ever plays original songs. What they do do is take them and put them through the shredder, where they come out the other end as high energy punk masterpieces. After hearing the Gimmie Gimmie version, I am always amazed at how wrong the original band got it.
Give a listen to their version of ABBA’s Dancing Queen off the upcoming album. I sent a short video of the song to my wife from last Wednesday’s set, and she texted back “I LOVE THAT SONG! I should have gone.” That’s the great thing about the Gimmie Gimmies. You can go to their show, listen for the first time to a song you have never heard them play before, and sing along at the top of your voice. It’s like the original, but just louder and thrashier.
There were two openers that night, also both punk supergroups. Ultrabomb consists of Greg Norton of Husker Du, Finny McConnell from The Mahones, and Jamie Oliver of UK Subs put on a great high energy set. Give their track Stickman vs Hangman a listen.
The Defiant is made up of Pete Parada from The Offspring, Greg Camp from Smash Mouth, Johnny Rioux from the Street Dogs, Joey LaRocca from The Briggs, and Dicky Barrett from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. That’s a bunch of talent all grouped together in one place. They originally got together during the Covid-19 lockdown when Pete left the Offspring and have been putting out some great music. Give a listen to Dead Language.
It was a great night of music, and I highly recommend. As a bonus, if you think about it, it was also like seeing about a dozen bands it one night!