Escape From The Zoo & Hans Gruber and the Die Hards on tour.
Jesse Sendejas of Escape From The Zoo - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
Daylight savings time was over, so even leaving early to see all of the bands, it was dark. Dark and raining on a Thursday night, but what better way to spend it than a ska/reggae show. I’m normally into faster, crazier music like street punk and hardcore but ska has been getting faster and closer to punk/hardcore over the past decade (making me a fan). Escape From The Zoo has a few songs that really rip, and I’d heard good things about Hans Gruber and The Die Hards. Also, I am a BIG fan of the punk/ska sub-genre “crack rock steady,” which combines punk, ska, folk punk, and crust … and Escape From The Zoo has that sound to perfection.
First up was Killer Diller, a solid ska band. They are a local band, but this was the first time I was able to catch them live. Smalls is a relatively small bar, and this was without a doubt the largest band I had seen on stage there, with 10 members. I probably couldn’t name all of the instruments correctly, but there were guitars, saxophones, trombones, drums, and a keyboard at the very least. In addition to originals, they did a ska cover of The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.”. The Michigan Ska crew was there in force with multiple flags sporting the “Killer Diller” logo, skanking in a big circle that covered the entire floor.
Next up was Danny Rebel and the KGB, a reggae band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A little bit slow for my taste, but they sounded great for the genre. I heard a few covers in there set as well, at least portions of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” and Pete Seeger’s “If I Had A Hammer.”. I’m not familiar with Poutine, but apparently it’s popular in Quebec. At one point they offered a packet of Poutine to whomever skanked the best to one of their songs.
Hans Gruber and the Die Hards with the Party People/Michigan Ska group (and their banner).
I was expecting a bit of crazy from Hans Gruber and The Die Hards (Austin, TX), and with a name like that I’m guessing everyone else was too. Their singer started right out by stripping down to his underwear (and he would remain that way for the entirety of the show). Another member was dressed like Waldo from Where’s Waldo? They really tore it up, nearly as good as what I was expecting from Escape from the Zoo. I ended up buying their CD, and I’m looking forward to checking it out later this week. At one point they threw a bunch of socks out into the audience, and did a sock puppet audience participation. When they played “Squatcore” they did squats, and the audience joined them again. After the set, they hung around and took pictures with the Party People/Michigan Ska crew. But they weren’t completely done yet.
Escape From The Zoo
Finally, Escape From The Zoo (Houston, TX) took the stage. I had missed them earlier in the year when they played a club show at Punk Rock Bowling (with The Suicide Machines), but I showed up late due to catching F.Y.P. at another club show). The singer from Escape From The Zoo also sings for Days N’ Daze, and another member is in Doom Scroll (which I had just seen at Riot Fest).
They started right out by ripping into their best song, “Heads Up, 7 Up.”. They did a great version of The Addams Family theme song and a couple of covers that weren’t really covers (from singer Jesse Sendejas’ other bands, Days N’ Daze and Chad Hates George). For the final couple of songs, they brought out Hans Gruber and the Die Hards to join them on stage, and for the final song, “Self Destructive Anthem,” they brought up a long line of audience members to sing their own verses. A great show!
