Some punks celebrate 4th of July at O’Brien’s Pub on Thursday, 4 July 2024. Obviously.

Helldog, Impact Driver, Moose Knuckle, and some sort of special guest fill the bill.

The Jamaica Plain Music Festival is coming!

Also known as the JP Music Fest. That’s got more zing.

It will be the 12th edition, coming your way in September, and each year is organized with tender love and care by a neighborhood community that loves live music and knows how to have a good time. This is a bottom-up affair, by and for the people, and it needs your support.

If you missed the annual Smell The Love fundraiser, you can still donate below!

If you missed the fundraiser show in March at the American Legion Hall with Rick Berlin, Colonel Broccoli and the Legion Basement Band, and Fantastic Trees, you can still donate below!

If you missed the annual classic fundraiser John Casey’s JP Bar Wars at Midway Cafe, you can still donate below!

Do your part to keep Jamaica Plain fresh AND funky.

Punk sets can be short. And Helldog’s was the shortest! Under ten minutes of aggro hardcore.

A frowny-face motherfucker was pacing like an insane person back and forth in front of the stage like he was looking for someone to mosh into oblivion. Even the night’s crowd, more or less used to that sort of thing, wasn’t looking to tangle.

The vocalist for Helldog made a go of it in the pit for a hot minute, flinging himself like a whirling dervish into the fray. The set didn’t last too long after, but the flame that burns twice as bright spurns half a gong.

A five-piece outfit with a real huckster on lead vocals. It’s Impact Driver.

The guy asks the crowd, “How many assholes you run into today?” “One?” A bunch of hands raise. “Two?” A few hands raise. “Three?” And so on. The punchline comes at the end, naturally. If you think you’ve run into too many assholes, then you’re likely the asshole.

Get along or get out. Which is sensible advice, although doesn’t everyone have fantasy scenarios they playact throughout daily life, where they are the enduring and unflinching hero of virtue and rectitude in an otherwise Froot Loop universe?

And you’re telling me I’m the asshole? Buzzkill.

Either the tallest, or tied for the tallest, mohawk of the night goes to the lead vocalist of Moose Knuckle. The guy sells the band name even harder by stripping down to a loincloth during the set. The band has a new release coming out in August. It’s a hot and humid month.

I didn’t ask who the special guest was and nobody bothered to tell me. I can tell you it was composed of one or two members of previous bands, plus a few new faces on the night. A real crowd pleaser. Lots of Ois and choral refrains familiar to the crowd.

Extra points for the massive accumulation of studded black leather jackets on stage. Happy 4th!

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