Dec 21st show review

As I said, Mediocre at Best was on stage when we arrived. To Andrew's disappointment he had missed the song "Armada" which they had played first. There was no mosh pit to speak of only two friends of the band who were jammin' near the stage. For the three songs that we were there to hear and see they played greatly like always, even though later on Ben said that it was one of their worst shows. Most of the band had come down with colds so their performance was damaged by that fact. We talked with them a bit while Lawrence Arms was setting up and I found out that they were really down to earth people.

Lawrence Arms caught my attention immediately as they went on stage and started to perform. When they went on we noticed that they were a three-man band and, from previous knowledge of three man bands, we were quick to judge them as just another Blink 182. But they were quite good and they really rocked the Cafe. They played a very high-energy aggressive set and, unfortunately, I was unable to see their final songs due to the face that I had run out of film in the camera so we all packed into the car alongside Ben of Mediocre at Best. We drove to the local gas station and got the film and we were back within 10 minutes but Lawrence Arms were already finished with their set. From what I heard they were great and I would definately like to see them again.

The Blue Meanies took quite a while to set up so we hung out with Mediocre at Best some more at their merchandise stand. When we first saw them they reminded us of Bad Religion...older, receding hair lines, that sort of stuff. I had never heard their music before so Andrew informed me that they were sounded like a ska version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was right. When they went on they had a two-piece horn section which consisted of a trumpet and sax; an organ, which surprised us; and of course the bass, guitar, drum and vocal group.

The singer of the Blue Meanies was very small, he stood about 5 foot 5 inches and probably weighed about 110 pounds but he had quite a pounding voice for such a small man. They played many songs and actually got a mosh pit going after a while. They played a long and kick ass set which kept us content until the last song. It really sucked and would not be one you EVER finish a show off with. Another problem of the show was the fact that they were way too damn loud so my ears were ringing terribly after the show. But, for the most part, they were a good band so we picked up a complementary free cd single they were giving away with two of their best songs on it. If I had a chance to see them again, I would definately go (loudness permitting).

We arrived a little late to this show due to the fact that I had to put gas into the car and then we had to stop at the Manitowoc Wendy's for some food. After that we were on our way to the show. We arrived at about 7:20 at the Concert Cafe, I could hear the music outside so I knew we were missing the first band. When we got into the place, much to our dismay, Mediocre at Best was on stage and we had missed most of their set so we would like to apologize for that. We were also surprised to see how empty the place was. There were only about 30-40 people at the Cafe so there was an amazing amount of room to walk around and get some good shots of the bands.