Every third Friday, businesses in Columbus Park stay open late for an art crawl dubbed Columbus Park Nights. While there is no official musical component to the event, in a surprising display of initiative, the folks in Slow Poke decided to add their own. Under a pop-up canopy in the bass player's backyard, the four-piece announced their presence to the crowds walking down the alley. But was the band offering an olive branch or a middle finger to the families pushing strollers in this changing neighborhood?

Slow Poke's set was a bit like an open-air practice. There were a few flubs, a few songs restarted, and several moments where a player had to be reminded which composition was which. Between tunes, there was discussion of what could be played next, and time was allotted for speedy drummer (and sometimes vocalist) "Jimi" to catch his breath. This gave guitarist "Dan" time to thank the crowd with sincerity and gave vocalist and guitarist Jesse Green a moment psych himself up for another song. The set featured both new and old songs (some dating back to the band's time as "The Protesters") and included several deep cuts. Green was worried about "GTFO," but it sounded wonderful. In fact, it all sounded wonderful. The band's punk rock favors the early '90s fare from Lookout! and Fat Wreck: poppy, snotty, quick, simple, and concise. Leads are important and they shone brightly whether played by Dan or Green. The whoa-oh-oh backing vocals also sat perfectly in the mix, adding sugar to the irony, humor, and aggression that dominate the quartet's lyrics.

While the act began its set to only a handful of friends, by the time its leisurely forty-five-minute set ended, over thirty people had stopped by – most of them staying until the end. There was even a call for an encore, which the band delivered. And since I saw no horrified patrons of the arts walking by with fingers in their ears, nor any Italian locals making the sign of the cross when they stumbled across the performance, maybe the group's co-opting of Columbus Park Nights wasn't actually an appeasement or an attack, but rather a reminder that these punks have lived on that block for decades and they're part of the community too. Do you think the enterprising guys in Slow Poke can get Bert's Backyard as an official stop on the map for next month's event?