The Phantom Creeps, Brains, Flatfoot 56’s show at the Slice, June 12, was impressive.
As a rare treat, local rockabilly/punk trio the Phantom Creeps displayed their prowess as a foursome, with former guitarist Evan Herbst taking a turn on stand up bass, freeing up regular bassist Tyler Brownfield to snarl and growl his way through the band’s set and prowl the stage as frontman. Numerous members of the packed house got their faces painted as zombies as the Creeps launched into a manic set including most of their latest CD including ‘Dead and Gone,’ and Cold Hearted Man.’ They had the crowd shouting along ‘straight to hell,’ And Brownfield got a rousing ovation when he took up the bass, playing it with a broken hand, but still pulling out all the stops on the last song of the set.
I was blown away by their Mahones meets the Mudmen mixed with the Dropkick Murphy’s Celtic punk energy, which blended screeching bagpipes with manic mandolin and ear bludgeoning Gibson SG power chording. I couldn’t understand a lot of the lyrics.
The crowd raised their hands and screamed at the urging of the band’s guitarist/vocalist Tobin Bawinkel who called out ‘opa‘ and created a bit of moshing chaos in front of the stage as the crowd clapped and pushed and bounced along with the music.
Mandolinist Brandon Good bounced all over the stage and leaped off the amps, while delivering blistering lead lines and took turns with wailing bagpiper Eric McMahon shouting along choruses to the crowd.
They ended their sizzling set with a selection of songs (which actually had a little Mighty, Mighty Bosstones feel to them) from their latest CD ‘Black Thorn,’ which immediately appealed to the audience. They ended their Lethbridge debut with a punk version of ‘Amazing Grace.’
I had to leave and unfortunately missed the Brains, but having seen them before, am sure they were amazing.