Too Much Rock
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Thursday February 12th, 2009 at The Riot Room in Kansas City, MO
The Toasters, Action Figure, & The Magnificents!
Robert Hingley of The Toasters
The Toasters
Tripp Kirby of Action Figure
[more photos]
[linked video]

Note: Sorry no time for a real account of this. A bigger sorry because I arrived at the show without my stack of memory cards and wasn't able to shoot the first band of the night. Doh. The quickie version is that The Magnificents! are pretty typical third wave ska that are fun and dorky and sloppy. Action Figure are driving and noisy rock with bits of punk and indie experimentalism. You all know what The Toasters sound like. They were incredibly annoying live, with the most tried and pointless stage banter and crowd baiting I've ever heard. In 1981 they may have cared about the show, but in 2009 they said what they're supposed to say (which included shouting "Kansas City" umpteen million times), played the songs, then got off stage quickly. Luckily I low expectations, and was rewarded appropriately. See, I wasn't as much interested in seeing these bands as I was seeing who would show up to see these bands. The answer: a few fashionable skinheads, a few decked-out punks, a few silly 3rd wave kids in pork pie hats, and a lot of old people who used to like ska. The more you know.