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Souvenirs at the Biko Co-Op Garage

Nick Samayoa

Souvenirs at the Biko Co-Op Garage

Light Years, Pentimento, and Souvenirs at the Biko Co-Op Garage

Quick Attack and Chrissy Summer Open on Thursday, January 12

Tuesday, January 17, 2012
By Levi Michaels

In the depths of the Biko House, past merch tables and through the garage, frequencies bounce around the graffitied walls. Loud or quiet, sober or soused, the music that ranges up and down Sueño Road brings a litany of kids out who are about one thing and one thing only: getting it done. DIY, or “do it yourself,” is an ethos that values grime over glamour and community above all. Last Thursday, this amorphous task force did it themselves to the tune of some of the most sentimental punksters on the scene.

The harshly lit garage seemed all too fitting for Chrissy Summer, who played at the tail end of this four-band bill. With glasses slipping down his face, the solo axeman recounted his abrasive punk-folk somewhere along the line between shouting and singing. Aided by caterwauling covers of Titus Andronicus, Andrew Jackson Jihad, and like-minded area act Fuzz Lightyear, Summer filled the room sans microphone or amp. It was a swooning set, but before Summer could get it done, there was the matter of a band called Souvenirs.

Smack in the center of a cross-country tour with Pentimento and Light Years, S.B.’s Souvenirs have been busy of late. Since releasing their 2011 debut EP, the four-piece has written another disc’s worth of material, which filled the bulk of their Thursday-night set. Newbies like “Sucker,” an ambling, Weezer-inspired jam, were pulled off with the same graceful intensity as older tunes, which were sadly few in number. That Souvenirs are writing and testing new material is surely a sign of progress, but perhaps a better balance could have been struck between the old and new. Regardless, set closer and sing-along “Squeeze” was a fitting end to their hometown stop.

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