Crazy punk with Copsickle and Knuckledown at the Moose Hall

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I hate to miss a good punk show, so I spent most of  Oct. 3 rushing back and forthCopsickle playing the Moose Hall, Oct 3. Photo by Richard Amery between five gigs downtown and a very late starting all ages gig at the Moose Hall, mostly because I wanted to catch a couple of local bands I haven’t heard before, plus Edmonton's Abuse of Substance, who I ended up missing anyway.


 I’ve heard a lot of great thing about  Lethbridge band the Space Wolves , but always seem to miss them as they are always on first opening for bigger bands and I usually have other gigs to hit first.
 So I stuck around the pretty vacant Moose Hall waiting for mohawked, studded jean jacket clad punks drinking in the parking lot, bands and fans to trickle in, explicitly to hear them.


 They did not disappoint when they finally took the stage. They blended elements of classic metal, quite a bit of screamo, a touch of death metal and straight ahead punk music.

 

Space Wolves frontman Donovan Howell howled and screamed the lyrics and jumped around in front of the stage where the tight band played plenty of riffs and exuded a heap of energy. He’d jump  back on stage  to help shout along with a few of the other band’s songs. 

They ended their set with their original “Waste” and a cover of Motorhead's “Iron Fist.”

 


 I unfortunately missed local punk stalwarts the Scallywags, who always put on a great show, but got back in time to catch Gender Bender, which featured  three fifths of the Space Wolves, plus Richard Yarwood on guitar. Knuckledown playing the Moose Hall, Oct. 3. Photo by Richard Amery

I couldn't hear the twisted lyrics over more tight riffs and high volume rhythms, but there was some interesting and  explicit song choices about sexual abuse and drug use.


They reminded me a lot of the Dayglo Abortions as a result. They played an original song called “Paul Kype Sings the Blues” which featured some of the sickest  guitar riffs of the night, though i couldn’t make out any of the lyrics other than “Paul Kype Sings the Blues.”


 Things got a lot more serious after that with Calgary punk trio Copsickle.
 I only caught the end of  their  stripped down, snarling set of vicious punk music including  the scary “Cops in the Freezer” and an outstanding burst of energy and angst “Broke As Fuck.”, songs about pop punk and  lots of songs about drinking plus  a fair amount of politically  charged venom.Gender Bender playing the Moose Hall, Oct. 3. Photo by Richard Amery


 Knuckledown were impressive, they also had a song about killing cops. Their music was high octane, melodic punk reminiscent of Social Distortion and an exceptional guitar playing including fretboard tapping and lots of catchy, profanity laden songs.


 There were  a lot of highlights including the ferocious “Talk Shit,” the catchy “First in Line” and anthemic “ Knuckledown.”


 Unfortunately I couldn’t stay around for the  return of Edmonton’s Abuse of Substance Space Wolves playing the Moose Hall, Oct. 3. Photo by Richard Amerythough their bassist  did double duty on drums for fellow Edmontonians Knuckledown.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 15 October 2014 12:08 )