Skaters are those kids that crotchety old men like to shake their fist at and yell, “You PUNKS!” Or at least that’s how they look on stage. They sound like it too sometimes, but their version of punk is a melodic garage variation that pulls from bands like Mission of Burma, Devo, The Cars, and The Clash. Comprised of three dudes from other bands – singer Michael Ian Cummings and drummer Noah Rubin are both from The Dead Trees, and guitarist Josh Hubbard played in The Paddingtons and Dirty Pretty Things – Skaters only formed a couple years ago but have opened for The Strokes and built a good buzz to make them legit. Their music is fast, loud, and fun, and their live show is full of randomness and energy.
For their headlining show at Bowery Ballroom, Skaters came out and conquered. Rubin sat high on a lofted drum set pedestal, which became the hub where the band would all come together and rock each other’s faces. Cummings used the raised platform as a standing and jumping off point, between swigs of Bud Light from a bottle and dismantling the mic stand and using it as a spear. Skaters rampaged through songs off their forthcoming debut LP, then left the stage to “Holly Jolly Christmas.” A dude in a Santa hat came out with a bag of Skaters hats, tossing them out into the crowd. Those kids went wild over trying to grab the hats like lions getting slabs of meat tossed at them. This was Skaters’ version of an encore, and when they came back out on stage they had a couple members of The Drowners jam with, along with like eight beach balls getting tossed all over the place. Skaters have this way of taking ideas and themes that have already been tossed around like those beach balls, and turning them around in a way that hasn’t been done before. Whatever they do, it’s fun, random, and feel good. #NoProblem.
The Drowners (below) were really good too, with their own raw punk energy and driving melodies. Also based in NYC, I get the feeling The Drowners and Skaters hang out a lot. In similar randomness, their set was introduced by Spiderman. And by introduced by Spiderman, I mean a guy in a Spiderman suit ran out on stage and sprayed silly string all over the crowd, gave a mischievous cackle, and ran back off. The Drowners set also exploded right from the get-go, with singer/guitarist Matt Hitt slurring some nearly unintelligible banter in his English accent, and guitarist Jack Ridley pretty much just went wild the entire time on his guitar, often stepping over the monitors at the front of the stage to get right in people’s faces. It’s cool that bands still want to have crowd interaction, and care about creating memorable experiences for the kids that go to their shows. Skaters had this vibe too, and that probably has a lot to do with their rise in popularity.
Garage pop openers The Denzels were on a similar wavelength as well. I totally saw guitarist Matt Degorio moshing during Skaters’ set. These guys support art and support fun. Denzels singer/guitarist Tommy Hinga was very expressive in both his lyrics and the faces he made while singing them. Degorio played guitar much like the way he moshed, bassist Paul Lizarraga shared vocals and created some interesting harmonies, keyboardist/guitarist Aman Ellis lended some cosmic synth sounds to the garage rock, and Dave Beegun is one of the most stoic looking drummers I’ve ever seen, hitting on point beats with the straightest face. Altogether they played good time jams with an edge, creating an ace soundtrack for beers with friends.
