Meridian, Purple 7, High Dive, Defiance Ohio @ Mahalls
Mahalls is a good venue where you can go bowling, see a show, get some piping hot fried chicken, and wait half an hour for one beer. I frequent it a lot (the secret is to buy two at once). And lately the joint has had the most consistently good and diverse swathe of concerts up here on the north coast. This show was essentially 2 bands doing 4 sets; Meridian, and the group of posi punks from Bloomington. This now means I am only like 3 degrees separated from Lil Bub.
Meridian starts off the night like most other bands on tours for bands like these: the local interpretation of the headliner. Just a buncha dudes who dug Jawbreaker and Hot Water Music then decided to add folk or whatever around the same time as everyone else. Same ingredients, different souffle. The main dude is in a bunch of bands I dig, so the energy was real good despite being the lunch portion of the main course.
Purple 7 is a rock band made of skater dads.
Next is another recobbled bloomington-scene-band that pretty much sounds like all the rest in one way or another, but everyone who is a part of it does WAY more interesting music than run of the mill stuff you expect from the town (except Toby who is basically secretly the best songwriter in the town). While the individuals do weirder chit, ranging from avant garde poetry to math-pop, the whole is more generic than the sum of its parts, but they’re kind of... “quality vanilla”. Exactly what you’d expect from a one-or-two-album-band-from-bloomington, but REALLY good at it. They recaptured the energy of the crowd who was totally not feeling Purple 7. This band’s name is High Dive bee tee dubs.
So as a youngin’ I basically grew up on folk punk so instead of going to Now Thats Class to see one of the most interesting bands in Cleveland, Cereal Banter, my inner disaffected yet earnest 17 year old got the best of me. Can’t say a bad word about defiance, Ohio, so this is a Zero Snark Zone from here on out. The show was exactly what you want from a band you grew up on; the hits, the fan favorites, the deep cuts, and a heartfelt and touching speech about how folks not affected by oppression should help those that are (in reference and solidarity with Tamir Rice), finishing on “the big song” that everyone loves. People in the crowd were a wave of joy and noun-that-means-being-stoked battering against the stage and it finally broke with Oh, Susquehanna!, the last song, ending the night completely summing up why folk punk is just so fucking good. Concern, Honestly, Introspection, Joy, Community, and each other.
http://meridianohio.bandcamp.com/
http://highdivetheband.bandcamp.com/
https://basementpop.bandcamp.com/album/jewel-finger
http://defianceohio.bandcamp.com/
