Brooklyn’s 285 Kent is, at this point, pretty notorious for having raucous, all ages shows. This one was certainly no different. After having some sour sound issues with the opening band, we got to the meat of the night (hehe) with Chain and the Gang and Hunx and His Punx. Ooo-wee did it get steamy in there. You could literally see the steamy mist rising off the writhing bodies. It felt like a swamp.
Earlier in the night I had seen Shannon Shaw (one of the Punx) by the bathrooms, and I knew instantly who she was because that woman is just unmistakable. She was a strong presence then, and she was even stronger on stage alongside Seth Bogart, who is also unmistakable as Hunx, and was dressed in the most flamboyant punk ensemble I’ve ever seen. He wore pants that had handwritten paint all over them, with all kinds of words and symbols from skulls and cross bones, pot leaves, anarchy signs, and “Hunx” written across the ass. He had the attitude to match.
Bogart picked up a guitar every now and then, but was mostly free to move around the stage, climb a pair of amps and drape himself across them, sit down and brandish his bottle of Sauza tequila silver, and generally antagonize the crowd. At one point he got several crowd members to wave around and throw their underwear on stage. Inevitably, his mesh cropped tank with their newest album title Street Punk scrawled across it eventually came off, and he slithered and strutted around while spitting out the new fast punk repertoire of the band. And everyone loved it. Gay, straight, didn’t matter. This was a great show, even if it did get a little hard to breathe. Bogart had all the moves and all the attitude of a frontman, and his Punx had all the rest of the attitude and chops to drive the loud sound.
DC retro punks Chain and the Gang got the crowd hyped right before, with their politically charged and super energetic set. They looked like Motown on speed, and they weren’t trying to take no mess from nobody. Frontman Ian F. Svenonius seizure-danced all over the stage in a full suit, which was impressive enough as it was a wonder he didn’t pass out from the heat. Singing harmony and acting as a frontwoman in her own right, Katie Alice Greer was also quite the force to be reckoned with. She was punk to the core, looking like G.I. Jane in a mod mini dress, and sharing screaming vocals and jump kicks. It’s a hard job keeping everybody high, but Chain and the Gang do it well.
Hunx & His Punx and Chain and the Gang had a short run together, but the former still have some dates coming up, including another Brooklyn play at Death by Audio this weekend.
