Insubordination Fest 2007
Day Three - Saturday, July 7

Story & photos by Jim Testa

I've been told that the legal capacity of the Ottobar is 450 people. Allowing a little leeway for various cranks, curmudgeons, and the mentally ill, I reckon that means at least 425 people now consider July 7, 2007 to be one of the best days of their lives.


The AV Club

I certainly do (as does Mr. Larry Livermore, one of the few attendees who's actually clocked more days on this planet than I.) I've been lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time and lived through several true music "scenes," a time and a place where the music and the bands and the fans combine to create a unique sense of community. It happened at Maxwell's in the 1980's, at the birth of Hoboken's indie-pop scene; and again at ABC No Rio in 1990; and certainly at the first several years of W.E. Fest. And now to those memories, I add the indelible experience of this year's Insubordination Fest.


The Guts

Saturday's show started at 11 a.m. and ran until well past 1 a.m., something like 14 hours. I completely lost track of how many bands got to play, but happily several headliners from Friday night's truncated show were squeezed in. Outside, Interpunk.com employees sold a king's ransom in CD's, vinyl, and t-shirts, while the members of Baltimore's Sick Sick Birds (raising money to record their next full-length) fed the crowd with grilled burgers and dogs. People got sloppy drunk, or didn't; everybody got pretty giddy regardless of what they were drinking. The crowd moshed and stage-dived and sang along with a fever that I've only experienced a few times over the last 30 years, for certain very special sets - never for hours and hours on end like this.


For Science

Hours and hours and hours of pop/punk, but much of it stands out: NJ's For Science, notoriously drunk and sloppy on occasion, played with an intensity I've never seen from them before. Baltimore's Dead Mechanical, as close as pop/punk gets to math-rock and art-punk, dazzled; where their set used to be the ultra-catchy "Guantanamo Calling" and a bunch of other songs, everything they did has a crisp distinctive edge. The AV Club brought a big bright power-pop sound to the proceedings. The Guts came out of New Hampshire practically unknown to most of the crowd and blew everybody away - great songs, charisma, precision, passion. Then Wimpy jumped on stage and the Guts led him and the crowd through a half hour set of prehistoric Queers tunes like "Got Kicked Out Of The Webelos." Pandemonium. Then the Guts came back as Ben Weasel's backup band and... well, more on that in a minute.


Wimpy with The Guts

The Leftovers, who I believe were the youngest band to play the Fest, had a lot to live up to. Earlier this year, Ben Weasel reported on the recording of their new CD on his "Waubesa Radio" Internet-radio program and anointed them as one of the best new bands in the country. They managed to surpass all the hyperbole anyway and played what was probably the set of their young lives.


The Leftovers

It didn't seem like there was much more the Ergs! could do - they'd already charmed the Friday night crowd with a singalong acoustic set in the blacked-out parking lot and an insane moshfest basement show at Charm City Art Space. Their set on the main stage trumped even that, inspiring me (who'd had a "few" beers by that point) to grab Dr. Frank and scream, "Those guys are you 20 years ago! They're the future of punk rock!!" (Note to Dr. Frank - I apologize. I probably scared the shit out of the poor guy.)


Ben Weasel

And then there was Ben Weasel. Backed by the Guts (who played flawlessly despite just a few rehearsals,) Ben gave the crowd everything they wanted and a lot that nobody could have expected. There were songs from his new solo album, of course. And a bunch of Screeching Weasel favorites (he dedicated "Cool Kids" to the Pop Punk Message Bored, how perfect!) Then he tossed in a few covers from the first Ramones album, a couple of Riverdales tunes (joined on stage by Dan Vapid, who would later perform with his band theMethadones,) "Motherfucker" (which he wrote for the Queers but had never performed,) and out of nowhere, a cover of the Queers' "Love Love Love." Holy fucking shit. A little later, after the Steinways regaled the crowd with a short set of their squirrely pop/punk, Ben came back and Steinweasel ran through four more Screeching Weasel songs.

Comeback of the century.


Ben Weasel

And the night was far from over. I hadn't been able to see Ben all day so after his set, I joined him, his wife, and a few friends at the Ottobar's upstairs lounge for a while, so I missed the Beatnik Termites and the Retarded. (Ben didn't though; he left us and went downstairs to catch the Retarded's set and said they ruled.)

The Methadones, Apers, and Teenage Bottlerocket all played terrific sets but that part of the night is pretty much a blur. The Mr. T Experience ended the night with a set that mixed some of Dr. Frank's newer material with enough of his pop/punk classics to satiate the still roiling crowd. They closed with "I Fell For You," with everybody left standing singing along, and then it was over.

Best day of my life.