Total Chaos & Noogy at the legendary Ace’s High Saloon SLC.
Rad The Impaler, guest vocals for Total Chaos, at Aces High Saloon SLC. Photo by Paul Holstein.
It's unfortunate when life gets in the way of punk rock shows, but I had to miss the Total Chaos / Noogy / State / EKG / Endless Vacation show at Sanctuary Detroit on July 1, as my family had a pre-planned vacation to Utah. We flew into Salt Lake City, rented a Jeep Rubicon, and drove 4 hours across the state to Moab. It was a fantastic vacation that included a rafting trip down the Colorado River, horseback riding through the red cliffs of Moab, an off-road trip through treacherous terrain in a convertible Hummer, Arches National Park, and Dead Horse Point. The final two days were reserved for heading back to Salt Lake City for a boat trip and float in the Great Salt Lake and to be near the airport for our return home. As I usually do whenever I'm near a big city, I checked local listings for punk rock shows. As it turned out, Aces High Saloon was just 5 minutes from our hotel, and the Total Chaos/Noogy tour had followed us there.
Normally I would consider sneaking out by myself to catch a late-night show like that, but I had no camera with me. Luckily, my parents (both in their early 80s) and my niece Angelina (who is also a photographer) both had theirs. When I made my request to borrow one, it somehow turned into the whole family going to the show with me (both of my parents, my sister, my niece, and my wife). Angelina even offered to be a guest photographer if I wrote a story about the show. All of my family are vegan, vegetarian, or pescetarian, and we are always on the lookout for restaurants that can accommodate us. As it turned out, Aces High Saloon not only serves food but also has the most extensive vegan menu in the area. We arrived early, grabbed a booth by the stage, and ordered dinner and drinks (I kept the tab open, as it would be a long night).
The line-up for Salt Lake City included two local openers, The Debasers and Fail To Follow. One of the first things that I noticed when walking in was the honeybee logo on the drum kit belonging to Fail To Follow. The day before, Angelina had a similar design tattooed on her arm as a memento of the vacation. It turns out that the honeybee is the state insect of Utah, and Utah is nicknamed "The Beehive State." The entire bar was also decked out in memorabilia from previous shows, pinball machines, and a life-size mural of Motorhead on the back wall. There was also a photo of Tina Turner from Max Mad Beyond Thunderdome, which turned into a long conversation about whether it was actually Tina Turner or possibly Grace Jones from Conan The Barbarian. Eventually, one of the band members stepped out from behind the merch counter, looked it up with his phone, and settled it for us.
Fail To Follow, opening for Total Chaos, at Aces High Saloon SLC. Photo by Paul Holstein.
Fail To Follow have been around since the mid-2000's in the SLC scene. They play melodic punk in the vein of Pennywise, Good Riddance, Strung Out, and Bad Religion, and they do it well. They did a 9-song set that opened with "Army of One" (they have a great video for that one, which you can find on YouTube) and ended with a new one, "No Kings". If we had only been checking out the iconic Aces High Saloon and stumbled upon a local show featuring these guys, I would have been happy (they were great). It was hard to believe my luck that this was the first of four bands and that the night would only be getting better.
The Debasers, opening for Total Chaos, at Aces High Saloon SLC. Photo by Paul Holstein.
Before the show, at the merch tables, we had been talking to Jon from The Debasers. He was a cool guy and seemed genuinely interested in our story about being tourists catching a punk show as part of our family vacation. He assured me that if I like street punk, I would enjoy his band (he was not wrong). Being from Detroit, we talked briefly about them playing with The Koffin Kats from Detroit and having met Joey Drinktickets (but who hasn't?). Just before they went on, Jon's wife randomly stopped by our booth to say hello (she pointed at Jon on the stage and said, "That's my husband"). She was just one example of how much more friendly people in the punk rock scene are, versus what the uninitiated might expect. They played a set similar in length to Fail To Follow, which included "Mormon Boy," which was loosely a cover of Devo's "Mongoloid" with the words changed (appropriate for Salt Lake City, the home of The Church of Latter-day Saints). These guys were straight up punk, and in many ways reminded me of Dayglo Abortions (ultra-high praise coming from me). Check out their video for "Religious Rhetoric" on YouTube, and then catch them live if you can.
Noogy, opening for Total Chaos, at Aces High Saloon SLC. Photo by Paul Holstein.
With the local support done, we were looking forward to the touring bands. We stopped by the merch booth again, and talked to Rad The Impaler (an artist that is touring with Total Chaos and Noogy; she had a foot-high orange mohawk and was covered with tattoos, including the Judas Priest "Screaming For Vengeance" logo prominently on one side of her head). My parents couldn't resist a couple of selfies with her, and we bought some of her sticker packs. During the sound check, I noticed that the guitar player for Noogy was wearing a Sanctuary Detroit T-shirt (that he picked up at the show I missed the prior week), small world. They played a lot of fast skatepunk and hardcore, a cover of "Boys Don't Cry" (The Cure), and I think I also heard an Operation Ivy cover in there. There was even a hip-hop original, "Back At It Again," that afterwards most of my family said was their favorite from the set. It was an impressive set, and I'm currently going through their entire discography on Bandcamp. We even bought a couple of Noogy T-shirts with Mickey Mouse giving the finger and drinking a 40-oz.
Total Chaos at Aces High Saloon SLC. Photo by Paul Holstein.
Total Chaos, from Pomona, California, have been around since 1989 and play classic UK82 street punk. They tour relentlessly, clad in leather and mohawks, and I catch them any time I get the chance (the last time was at Smalls Bar in Detroit on tour with Acidez). I'll also be catching them later this summer in Belgium at Brakrock. They blasted through more than a dozen classics, and Rad The Impaler came out to scream a few with them. Surprisingly, my whole family was having so much fun they all stayed to the end. A perfect end to a perfect vacation.
