Growing up in Western North Carolina, good + loud + punk live music was hard to come by. As if Asheville is somehow paying its penance for all of those years of ignoring or under-appreciating punk music in all of its various forms, good + loud + punk is getting easier to come by. This Wednesday’s show at The Orange Peel was a fantastic dose of circumstantial evidence for my case. Each one of the three bands would have easily held their own as headliners with their unique style of loudrock. The Drowning Men started the show with a worthy concoction of punk, gypsy and Irish. mewithoutYou continued the intensity with a genuine, frantic display of emotional ass-kicking. The crowd had already been whipped into a well-intended frenzy by the openers when Alkaline Trio took the stage. Stagehands cleared the path for the threesome with a set-up that was as simple as their power chords. The angry, colorful ballad, “Shaking Like a Dog” (acoustic version), finished their regular set followed by a rousing encore complete with over zealous fans joining the band on stage for a few head bangs.
It’s always refreshing to hear good + loud + punk in WNC. Makes up for all the quiet I had to endure growing up.
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