| About a week ago, the Top Dog Magazine staff made the trek down to the Splash in Mobile to see Dynamite Boy and some other bands. We drove around forever trying to find the place, and I was afraid we had missed everything but Dynamite Boy by the time we finally made it to the Splash at a little after 9:00 (the show was supposed to start at 8:00). However, only Stagger had played and Still Struggling, a local band, was just setting up. Still Struggling played a fairly diverse sounding set; most of it was straight-up punk rock, but a few songs kinda reminded me of Rites of Spring and one song sounded a little like the Promise Ring. They were pretty good, if a little amateurish. I think Still Struggling could be a great band if they work on refining their songs a little bit and try to be a little more professional (the bass player broke a string and didn't even have extra strings, much less a spare bass, so they kinda goofed off for a few minutes and finally decided to just try to finish their set with a missing bass string). Next up was Lucky 7 from San Diego. They were more of a pop-punk band and were more professional than Still Struggling, if a little less interesting (SS had a guy dressed up as Richard Nixon running around the stage during their set). I think the best part of Lucky 7 had to be their lead guitarist; rather than just playing in unison with the singer/guitarist, he played some nice little melodic leads during the bridges of their songs. Pretty good stuff. After Lucky 7 came the headliners, Texas' own Dynamite Boy. I had heard a few of their songs before coming to the show, and, like Lucky 7, it was pretty much standard pop-punk fare. Dynamite Boy played a great set and really seemed to get into playing live; they even played a cover of AC/DC's "TNT," which was a nice touch. After Dynamite Boy, there were actually three more bands set to play. While Dynamite Boy was packing up, Mark, Ric, and I bought some merch and went to Mark's car to drop our stuff off before heading back to the Splash for the last three bands. Go Real Slow had already played most of their set when we got back, but we got to hear their last few songs. They were okay, but didn't really stand out much from the other bands stylistically. The next band was a trio called ATM (Amazing Transparent Man) who I thought were pretty good. Their guitarist and bassist switched up their instruments, which was cool, and their songs kinda reminded me of early Blink-182 with their vocals and harmonies. A local band called Spunji was set to play last, but they took forever to set up. The previous bands hurried through their sets so that all the bands would have a chance to play (Dynamite Boy didn't even play an encore), but Spunji seemed to be in no hurry to start; they seemed to take as long to set up as some of the other bands took to play. When they finally decided to play their stuff, I thought they were great even though I was pretty tired and more than a little annoyed because of the time they spent setting up. Spunji had a different sound than the other bands; they had more of a grungy-indie-Sub Pop feel. I thought they were good, but we were all tired and decided to leave after only a few songs. This was a great show and I think I got some pretty good pictures, which I'm posting on time for once. Enjoy. ~matt Dynamite Boy Lucky 7 Still Struggling Go Real Slow, ATM, and Spunji |
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| June 14th @ the Splash DYNAMITE BOY Lucky 7 Still Struggling Stagger + Go Real Slow ATM (Amazing Transparent Man) Spunji |
| still struggling |