Review: A.C. at Station 4

After hustling to get to Station 4 in time for In Defence, I walked in just in time to see them leaving the stage. I was then told I had missed one of their greatest sets ever, one that included clown wigs, jason masks, stage dives gone wrong and bizarre acrobatics. Damn.

Instead, I got to see Gorgotron do a GG Allin cover, Diagoro beg the crowd to mosh and Sikfuk be a fuckin’ weirdo with a drum machine. I would have preferred to be doing other things.

Anal Blast took the stage and used their twenty minutes to play a surprisingly straight-forward set. After hearing the stories of shows with live sex performed on stage and used tampons being eaten, I was expecting some grotesque spectacle for what was billed as the Ass Crack Deluxe Dance Party 2.  Of course, their grind isn’t exactly wholesome, with most of their songs being about menstrual blood in some way or another. They were tight, didn’t overstay their welcome and played an awesome tune called “Sacramenstrual,” about menstrual blood being used as a substitute for the communion wine. Fun for kids!

I had trouble seeing Faggot because I was blinded by all the goddamn glitter covering their bodies. I actually found some in my snot when I blew my nose after the show. Man, I hate glitter. It gets everywhere and you can’t seem to get rid of it.

There was a metalhead standing up front who also hated glitter. He crossed his arms and turned his back to the stage. One of Faggot’s dancers seemed to think that this particular metalhead’s looks of disgust had something to do with all of the pervy dancing and penis being flaunted on stage, but I’m pretty sure it was the glitter.

Still, the dancer kept egging the metalhead on, making kissy faces at him and talking about how enamored he was with the guy. At one point, the metalhead gave the “bring it on” sign, but the dancer just went back to dancing.

It can be difficult to concentrate on Faggot’s music, particularly when a dancer in a skin tight gold suit launches himself into the crowd head first and rolls around on the dirty concrete floor with his penis hanging out, which is why it’s good that Faggot has a CD out now. That makes it easier to enjoy awesome songs like “The Cleaner” and “Fuck You America” without having to worry about someone mashing their cock against your shoe. After they finished taunting the crowd about being a bunch of assholes, they left the stage, leaving trails of glitter in their wake.

When it comes to Anal Cunt songs, there are some clear themes. There are women-hating songs. There are gay-hating songs. But for this show, they went with the holocaust theme, starting their set with the marching grind of “Body by Auschwitz.” The theme popped up again and again, with a highlight coming in the form of the goofy “Hitler was a Sensitive Man.”

When a dude in the crowd yelled out, “I find that mildly offensive,” the guitar player corrected him: “You’re mildly offensive. We’re terribly offensive.”

Surprisingly, they played some new tunes, including the not-terribly-offensive-at-all, “Blasting my Band’s Demo on a Box at the Beach,” which is destined to become an A.C. classic.

If their offensiveness went away for a moment, it didn’t stay gone for long. For every song like their oi version of “Stayin’ Alive,” they played something like “Women, Nature’s Punching Bag.” All the while, lead growler Seth Putnam crushed his arms against his torso while holding the microphone, as if he had to manually squeeze the mind-numbingly intense growls and screeches out of his lungs.

At one point, a drink flew onto the stage and the drummer freaked out. “Who through the drink? Come on asshole!” He bolted off the stage and charged into the bar area of Station 4, randomly picking some dude to accost. I was hoping for fisticuffs, but the drummer gave up when he realized he had the wrong dude. He returned to the drumset and they wrapped up the set with a few more tunes, keeping the violence in the music itself, which is probably the best place for it.

Anal Cunt played at Station 4 in St. Paul, MN, on 05/05/09.