We're in Wyoming

American Cheeseburger from Athens, Ga. came to St. Louis last night (May 11) to play their style of slippery fast skate thrash.

Let's take care of this question you most likely have right now: Why the name? i wish I had an answer. It's ironic, as they are all vegetarian. However, they do play bloody fast hardcore punk.

I rarely see punk bands from the South, previously my only knowledge of contemporary bands from there fell into the mosh-metal genre. If you're interested in a piece of wax that has their songs recorded, check out Tsunami Records.

Also playing were the ever improving God Fodder, who live at the house on Wyoming Street where the shows were held. Think mid '80s hardcore with plenty of mid-paced "breakdowns" if you will. The middle of the set was filled with none other than Cardiac Arrest.

The show got underway a little after 8:30 p.m. with about 30 people there. This I think will be one of the last shows at this house because of problems with previous shows (show number estimates are around 40 in the past year, but picked up since January with about 20, several being literally "packed houses") that have gotten the neighbors and landlord a tad miffed. Think pulled-up flowers from neighbors' gardens apparently.

So with this maybe being one of the final shindigs at the Skullfuckeree (What an odd nickname for a house), I wanted to show up with a camera to document it. Also there were three solid bands playing. As a music fan I can never really tell when a band hasn't rehearsed, and though there were a few of those "we're rusty" type comments, it didn't really matter much to me. Good sets from all. No movement from the crowd which took aback the Southern-fried thrashers American Cheeseburger. But I would chalk that up to it being a Thursday night and the basement not being the most conducive to moshing around. I'm sure American Cheeseburger will get more than their fill of crowd participation when they head to Austin, Texas in a few weeks for Chaos in Tejas.

The cords supplying power to amps were held in place with electrical tape that had become limp and slippery from the humidity. Someone said the place was held together with "bubble gum." That place has never been the ideal setting for this type of music -- more so your power-pop/punk -- but at this point anyone in St. Louis will take anything they can get when it comes to DIY punk venue.

I would try to review the style of AC, but I am listening to "Please, Please, Please" by James Brown right now and there is no way I'm turning this song off and putting on their music. If the worst review the band ever gets is "not better than James Brown," I think they would be happy with that.

The above photos are, in order, God Fodder, Cardiac Arrest, American CheeseburgerSt. Louis punks obviously happy to be there while Jason, drummer for AC (Suicidal shirt), enjoys a beer.