Soap Charge w/ DIY Suicide, PoGoStiX and Power Beer

More than anything, though, it showed what the punk community is all about: adapting when things go wrong, supporting one another and somehow always finding a way to have a good time. Photo: Sarah Clark

Image: Sarah Clark

Concert

Between venues shutting down, bathrooms flooding and fill-in drummers learning an entire set five minutes before playing it, this night was one to remember. More than anything, though, it showed what the punk community is all about: adapting when things go wrong, supporting one another and somehow always finding a way to have a good time.

Part I — The Uggy

The night started at The Uggy, the absolute epitome of a true underground DIY venue. You won’t find much help getting there from the show flyer, either. The address simply reads: “Ask a Punk!”

Power Beer, a Salt Lake street-punk band and longtime favorite in the local community, helped kick off the night. Having been around for a decade, the band is part of the interconnected web that helps make up Salt Lake’s punk scene, sharing members with local bands including PoGoStiX, Macana and Debasers.

Next up was PoGoStiX — a newer Salt Lake pogo-punk band that seems to be spreading like wildfire — quickly becoming a favorite not only with Salt Lake locals but in neighboring punk communities as well. Members Tyler Landress and Rich Evans were also responsible for organizing the show.

After Power Beer and PoGoStiX performed, however, the show at The Uggy unexpectedly had to come to an end.

That could have been the end of the night. Instead, it became the beginning of Part II.

In true punk-community fashion, everyone pitched in. Within a matter of minutes, organizers Landress and Evans — with support from the local Pyrate Punx and Codi Aragon — found another venue, secured a sound tech and started getting everyone moved to Aces High Saloon.

Part II — Aces High Saloon

In less than 45 minutes, the bands and crowd went from a show ending unexpectedly at The Uggy to an entirely new one being set up at Aces High Saloon.

The owners and crew at Aces High Saloon, who have continually provided a safe space for Salt Lake’s alternative community, jumped in to help get the show back up and running so touring bands DIY Suicide and Soap Charge could still play.

DIY Suicide, a street punk/hardcore punk band from Hemet, California, brought themes of mental health, anti-fascism, punk ethos and partying with them to Salt Lake. There was just one fairly significant problem: they were without a drummer.

Apparently that wasn’t going to stop anyone, either.

Sidney Schreiber from Soap Charge stepped in, learned DIY Suicide’s songs about five minutes before their set and filled in on drums. If relocating an entire punk show in under an hour wasn’t already enough, watching a fill-in drummer learn a set minutes before playing it seemed pretty fitting for the night.

Soap Charge closed things out after getting a firsthand introduction to what Salt Lake’s underground punk community is really like. Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, with members now spread across multiple states, the street/pogo-punk band covers everything from friendship and punk ethos to anti-authority, mental health, partying and simply making fun of themselves.

By the time Soap Charge took the stage, the night looked completely different from how it started, but the show went on.

A venue change, a missing drummer and every other hiccup thrown at this show couldn’t kill it. Instead, the chaos made the night memorable. Organizers, musicians, venue owners and members of the community all stepped in wherever they were needed to make sure two touring bands didn’t come to Utah for nothing.

If anything, the disaster showed Soap Charge and DIY Suicide a side of the Utah punk scene they probably weren’t expecting to see. It wasn’t polished and it definitely didn’t go according to plan, but everyone adapted, supported each other and kept the show alive.

And really, what could be more punk than that?

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