It was tough to leave the house on a gloomy, rainy Friday night to head to a concert after the first full week back to work after the holidays. But that feeling quickly subsided as soon as the first note played on this night of a triple bill of ska/punk-related bands at The Pageant on January 10, 2020.
The tone of the night was quickly set with Chicago’s Flatfoot 56 taking the stage straight up at 8 p.m. For the next half hour, the already packed crowd was treated to the good-natured fellows blasting their thumping, driving, fast hardcore Celtic punk sound. At one point, frontman Tobin Bawinkel joked that this wasn’t a wine tasting event as he encouraged everyone to introduce themselves to their neighbors.
More photos: http://bit.ly/Goldfinger20cz
A brief technical glitch early on did not rankle the seasoned, Grand Rapids-based Mustard Plug from performing their fast-paced set of all ska sounds for 45-minutes. And we learned a thing or two about them such as it’s been 5 years since they last played St. Louis, they’re big fans of local ska-punk band MU330 and that they’re fans of City Museum. as they chatted up the crowd during the fixing of the glitch.
More photos: http://bit.ly/Goldfinger20cz
Prior to Goldfinger bounding on stage to a now packed house, Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” piped in over the sound system in tribute to the news earlier in the day that Rush’s legendary drummer Neil Peart passed away January 7. Since 1994, this LA-based band has brought their high-energy, frenetic, radiant ska-punk rock sounds to St. Louis numerous times (including six shows at The Pageant) and now that St. Louis’ Philip “Moon” Sneed is part of the line-up one can only hope that means they’ll come through even more.
The next hour-plus set included originals “Get What I Need,” which frontman John Feldmann said was his favorite from their 2017 The Knife album, “Tijuana Sunrise,” “Superman,” “Put the Knife Away,” and “Mable” (which included dozens from the audience coming on stage). They also put their spin on several covers including The Rembrandts “I’ll Be There for You” also known as the theme song to the hit ’90s show Friends, The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven,” “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (which Charlie Paulson joked that they didn’t get to play Christmas shows this year so Feldmann had to get it out of his system), and Blur’s “Song 2” sung by Moon while crowd surfing.
The band shared memories including playing with St. Louis’ The Urge at the now gone, but not forgotten, Mississippi Nights. Paulson said of that night, “man, St. Louis, you have work ethic,” referring to a stalker that lasted for five years.
Goldfinger delivered as only they can, shaking the misty grey day out of every corner of The Pageant while elevating the atmosphere to one of pure golden sunshine.
All photos from the night: http://bit.ly/Goldfinger20cz
What’s coming up next at The Pageant: https://www.thepageant.com/calendars/
