Please pardon me while I get used to the WordPress format. I’m a bit discombobulated by all the wild changes that have been happening around Ve.
Last Saturday, July 17th, Chico, CA punk rock band Gruk played their last show ever after being around for over ten years. Ve was there to report on the happenings, and didn’t get around to doing so until this afternoon. Photos were taken by a rad dude named Tyler Rollins , who is rad for letting Ve use his stuff.
The show was held at Monstro’s Pizza, which is a pretty awesome little improvised venue that the Pirate Punks have been booking at these days.
The first band to play was a Chico staple called Zabaleen. I didn’t see their set, and I was never really into them, so oh well.
The Shankers are a rockabilly-like act from Chico that’s been around for a few years now, and have made quite a name for themselves with kids in Northern California who like to rock out. The Shankers play a sort of raw, unapologetic style of music that often explores the more raunchy things in life. They played a fun, quick little set.
The highlight of the night for me was Seattle, WA’s Galdr, who were sort of like a more doom metal, female fronted Bongzilla. Their music was drawn out and spacey, but at the same time totally intense. While all the other bands on the set were old friends of Gruk, this is the first time Galdr’s played in Chico or with Gruk, and it was sort of great to see a new friend of Gruk’s as well as the old ones.
Speaking of old friends, few bands were as associated with Gruk as Portland, OR’s The Wobbilies, who, as their name might suggest, play a rowdy political punk, which is heartfelt and sincere in it’s discussion of labor, war, feminism, etc. and at the same time is fun music to have a swashbuckling time to.
Gruk played a set of over twenty songs, that really killed, and was hands down one of the best shows I’ve seen from the band. They’re style was fast paced, screechy punk that doesn’t waste any time. It was nice to hear the band play some of their older songs that they hadn’t performed in a while.
Gruk was the first political punk band that I saw in Chico. At the time, I was nineteen, and political punk was the only kind of music I wanted to listen to. They absolutely rocked my world. However, as the years dragged on, and original members were replaced by unoriginal members, the band sort of petered out, and as such, I think it’s a good thing that Gruk’s members have went their separate ways. I trust that the future endeavors that former Gruk members take will have the same new and exciting feeling that Gruk once had, and I look forward to seeing what that entails.
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