There a lot of bands who play Lethbridge who should be honourary Lethbridgians because they play here so often. One of them is Calgary Celtic punks the River Jacks, who have played here numerous times in many different incarnations.
They always put on a solid show as they did on Sunday, Dec. 13 when they played Inferno, opening up for a couple of excellent American punk bands.
Unfortunately I missed local openers the Spacewolves, but arrived just in time to catch another excellent set of toe tapping, accordion pow
ered Celtic punk from the Riverjacks. They sang a crowd favourite about pirates and many other ocean inspired Celtic rockers.
Versus the World brought a sunny, southern California punk vibe and touched on some of the best of the 90s pop punk with a touch a touch of screamo and smattering of metal featured some hot solos from the guitarists.
Bassist Mike Davenport jumped around and added driving rhythm. The crowd was pretty quiescent and standing back so the band brought the party forward as frontman Donald Spence sang right in their faces, getting a few of them moving. Their music had an an interesting blend of cheerful and angstful.
They borrowed Authority Zero drummer Sean Seller
s, who provided a relentless backbeat throughout the set of fast paced pop punk.
“Detox Retox” was one of many highlights as was “Homesick Roadsick.”
Authority Zero reflected the laid back, sunny vibe of their home state of Arizona but has a surprising ska and reggae influence, sounding a little like the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones, but without the horn section.
They added a touch of AC DC style hard rock including a few bars of “TNT.”
