Three Decades On, I still Pine for Pegboy
I’ve entered what I fondly refer to as my “okay Boomer” phase, meaning that I prefer to stay home and watch punk rock documentaries on Netflix to going out after working a few grueling 12-hour night shifts in a row. UNLESS I find out that one of my all-time favorite punk bands is coming to the town in which I’m currently residing. Which is exactly what happened last night. If you open my Pandora app, my main station is “Pegboy Radio.” Open my Bandcamp, and my queue is primarily the whole Pegboy discography. I have what some might term an addiction to this band. The last time I got to see them live was in 2017 at Fest, and that was the first time since the mid-90s. And they are one of the main reasons I canceled a trip to Italy this coming September in order to attend Riot Fest. So when I found out they were playing in Vegas last night, I had no choice but to forego my Netflix and chill and to head to Dive Bar.
The doors said 7:00pm, so I headed down and got there around 6:30pm. There was no door guy, and people were just coming and going, so I walked in and sat at a table, thinking the first band would go on around 7:30. Smoking inside is still legal in Vegas, so it wasn’t long until I was nearly choking to death. But 7:30 came and went. Around 8:30, a guy named Steve came up and asked if he could join me. We started chatting and he told me he just found out that the first band was going to go on at 9 and Pegboy would play at 11. I died a little bit inside, but I was committed now. Steve also told me that the woman who owns Dive Bar used to bartend at a now-closed club in Chicago (from which both Steve and Pegboy hail) so that’s why the band was playing at this cool little hole-in-the-wall club/bar.
When your pool table doubles as your merch table, you might be a dive bar. photo by kim moenich
I’d never heard of either opening band, but I had chatted with both before the show and was mildly excited for what was to come. The first opener was a local Vegas trio, hilariously named Battering Ham. The self-proclaimed pioneers of “Weiner-core” punk certainly know how to put on a show. With songs like “Sex Working Robots,” “The Dong Show,” and “George Takei versus Uranus,” I knew I was in for a good time. But this NOFX-esque group were more than just fun goofballs; these guys are actually REALLY good musicians. Even when they challenged the audience to time them while they played 2 songs in “less than 69 seconds” (the final count was 66 seconds by my timer), those two songs were pretty complex and super fun to listen to. Their final song was a Van Halen cover that they dedicated to all the children and elderly who are being abused, called “Hot For Preacher.” Even this parody was expertly played, with the guitarist totally shredding. I loved the singer’s very stereotypical punk voice, and I could watch the drummer play for hours. Seriously, if you have the chance to watch this “comedy punk” band, I strongly suggest you take it! You won’t be sorry!
Citrus Pit are three cool kids from San Jose who have been playing together for 3 years now and just dropped their second album, titled Orange City. This marked the band’s first show outside of Cali, and the boys were quite excited. They put on an electrifying set of complex post-punk songs with both fun and interesting lyrics. Following Battering Ham’s set full of nods to genitalia, Citrus Pit singer, Lennon, Heitkam, proclaimed, “I apologize that we don’t have a lot of songs about weiners, but this song is about Crocs and Crop Tops!” It’s obvious Citrus Pit love doing what they do and they do it pretty well. Hopefully we’ll see them playing more shows futher out in the country in the near future!
I had approached Pegboy singer Larry Damore before the show as he sat at the bar and showed him my old flyer from a show they played in Chapel Hill in the mid-90s. We both lamented how we’d rather be in bed right now, but how we were both going to power through because, as Larry said, “The show must go on!” And go on, they did. From the first chord of “Now What I Want” to their cover of the Mission of Burma song “Revolver” to the sing-along for “Strong Reaction,” and at all points in between, Pegboy had me screaming the lyrics and pumping my fist in the air. Founded by brothers John and Joe Haggerty, the band has remained pretty much the same, with only the bassist role being replaced over the years, with amazing bassists such as the late Steve Albini and Pierre Kedzy, who also passed in 2020. The band played a Pierre song last night in tribute to their late friend, and I might have shed a tear or two. After the show, I got a chance to finally tell John Haggerty (also of Naked Raygun fame—another of my favorite bands) how truly incredible he is. If you’ve never listened to Pegboy, I implore you to give them a shot and focus on John’s incredible guitar riffs. I thanked him last night for simply existing, as his music has been a life raft for me for decades now.
Needless to say, I’m quite glad I braved the late-night driving to make it to the show. The crowd was tiny and the cigarette smoke was thick, but none of that mattered once Pegboy took the stage. It was totally worth not being able to talk today and the massive amount of caffeine I’ve had to consume to get this story out on paper, despite my heavy eyelids. Thanks, John, Joe, Larry, and Herb, for one helluva night!
e.
