Just some punks at a bar on a Tuesday night in the Middle West. No big deal.

Basics from Texas opened. It's a three-piece built of Austin Rupe (vocals/guitar), Trevor Teague (bass/vocals), and Logan Davidson (drums). The band's sound lies somewhere between pop-punk and emo-pop. The former skewed more Blink-182 than Queers, while the latter was realized by occasional bouts of slow-picked arpeggios and a longing vocal. These moments of quietude were usually short-lived and always followed by bursts of energy. When Rupe played solos, Teague covered the melody. When freed, Teague played high up the neck. Compositions were often nimble, pushed by urgent drumming that featured nice rolls in the bridges leading to big choruses. There was a breakdown or two, and once the riff even came back slower, hardcore style. There wasn't a pit, but there were good punk songs and strong players.

Touring partner Takes the Cake followed. Zeff Leyva fronts the group offering lead vocals and bass while Cody Cash (rhythm guitar), Gunner Molton (drums/vocals), and Adam James (tour-only lead guitar) make it happen. The quartet is from Arkansas. Leyva's voice was scratchy and raw, resulting from a Great Plains dust storm that had settled into the band's touring path for several days. It pained him, but it sounded good. As relief, Molton sang lead on one song and joined Cash for backing vocals throughout the set. This gave Leyva some license to roam, and he moved about the stage well. So Leyva wouldn't be alone in his motion, Cash occasionally stepped into the audience to play. There was plenty of room as there couldn't have been twenty patrons in the club. That's a shame as the foursome's Hot Water Music-esque punk was a delightful balance of dynamics, melody, and attack. Knowing Leyva's voice wouldn’t last long, the act cut its set to a short twenty minutes. Afterward, Leyva invited the audience to join him at the merch table or, better yet, at one of the miniature skate parks set up in the room for a fingerboard skate sesh.

Locals The Bad Ideas headlined. When the band's co-founder and guitarist Britt Adair died two years ago, its members melted into a void of grief. Slowly co-founder Breaka Dawn has nudged the project back into activity, surrounded by longtime players Matt Roberts (bass) and Jay Willis (drums), and bolstered by new addition Mike Alexander (guitar). Rumor is an additional rhythm guitarist may soon be in the works for the group. Dawn leads the project. She made that perfectly clear, shouting "We are a female-led band" the moment she picked up the microphone. The set featured the act's well-worked punk played fast and furious while Dawn paced the stage ranting against politics, about for-profit healthcare, about a creep named Wayne that bothers her when she walks, and about any number of annoyances big and small. There were few moments of respite in the ten-song outing – some backing vocals from Roberts, that staccato guitar lead in "False Action," the breakdown in "Under the Knife," and that's about it. After only twenty minutes, the foursome ended with Bikini Kill's "Double Dare Ya." While the cover was a staple in its sets a decade ago (even appearing on its 2015 debut album), it hadn't been aired out in a while. It was good to hear Dawn scream out the opening "We want revolution, grrrl-style, now!!!" once again.

Just some punks at a bar on a Tuesday night in the Middle West. That ought to be good enough for anyone.