Last week quite by surprise my friend Alan informed me that The Briefs, an incredible band who are heavily rotated in my DJ sets and have been for a few years now, were playing a show at Thee Parkside. I was thrilled that this event didn’t slip by me unnoticed because I really think The Briefs are a completely under-rated gem of a band and sort of a stylistic oddity considering they hail from Seattle, climbing out from under the shadows of their monolithic fore-fathers of grunge in the year 2000 with quite a different outlook and energy to serve up. The briefs harkened back to an era in music when punk rock was fun and funny and verging on the next permutation in musical evolution, New Wave or Punk Pop, like bust-out-your-weird-sunglasses-and-skinny-ties type of hard hitting fast paced punk with a grin and snarl, like 999, The Undertones, The Buzzcocks, the Damned and The Dickies. They definitely had that very fast paced guitar driven sound with extra wordy lyrics and shout and respond choruses and they came with a definite look—all blonde and sporting a hodge-podge of new wave fashionisms—florescent colors, black and white checks, pork pie hats, blazers, creepers, mod gear, etc. The Briefs are a total package, hitting the scene like an electrified breath of fresh air while obviously drawing their inspiration from sounds and styles of almost 30 years ago with an unapologetic zeal and genuine enthusiasm for the music. But this band goes well beyond being just a retro blast of energy—they write excellent songs with topical lyrics that apply to today with such clever aplomb and political savvy, and they do all this and still sound inexplicably fun—even on some of the more nihilistic songs like “Destroy the USA” or the matter-of-fact post 9/11 warning song “Orange Alert,” they may be driving home a few important points but I guarantee your toes will be tapping and you’ll end up dancing more to these politics and global concerns than you would have ever dreamed. The Briefs are the band who can take you there without sounding too preachy or self-serious like I used to think The Clash did and with a minimum of evangelical flag waving save the world Bono-isms too. But this band isn’t here to fill you up with politics and religious platitudes—they are here to rock in a pure and simple way—fast and hard with precise song structure and guitars wielded like punk rock chainsaws. They are beyond tight, so skilled they cover all bases with ease and are seemingly left with enough strength and energy to hit new levels of unhinged instrumental mayhem and over the top stage presence. They took the stage and just turned it on like hitting a switch—these four skinny young sharply dressed men suddenly were a wall of visceral blonde and charged punk rock aggression, free of irony and also free of some of those key words from the pages of punk history like “destroy” and “anarchy” and “chaos.” This was something far more positive clever and humorous but no less intense nor without conviction
The crowd assembled at Thee Parkside was large and boisterous and during the previous band, The Bodies, many of them had decided to make champagne geysers from several shaken bottles as did the singer of the band. I could have done without getting my entire backside soaked with the stuff but the whole tiny club was by the time their set ended and The Briefs started moving their equipment in from the street. They set up their stuff in what seemed like a record time on the slightly elevated tiny stage in the corner of the room. You could tell this band meant business already, but I was very dismayed over the simple fact that this venue for some reason or another had not even attempted to illuminate the stage at all, making it very difficult to see the band once the room was full. Perhaps they were hoping to eliminate the risk of electrocution from the champagne shower or something, but it has become increasingly clear each time I go there just how much Thee Parkside doesn’t mean business on a professional level. Maybe I was just irritated by being soaked and sticky but I kept thinking to myself, “This place is a dump.” Don’t want to be harsh on a music venue, I’d rather be supportive, but the place could do with some basic improvements it seems. I shouldn’t complain much as they did have the smarts to host The Briefs and many other great bands too if you check out their schedule—but a few well placed spots would really enhance the stage and clean isn’t a bad thing for a bar to be.
The band burned with energy to spare from their first note on, you could just see that these guys give it their all in live performance, just like I had heard about them, and the assembled crowd kicked up their level of boisterousness several notches, most of them knowing all the words and screaming along. Eventually the people at the very front found themselves dutifully holding microphone stands in place for each member as they kept getting knocked around by the crowd. It impressed me that lead vocal chores seemed to alternate between members throughout the set and that all members provided spot on backing vocals, just like their records. The drummer was very impressive and super fast and he made it look effortless the whole time. I was amazed at what a solid monolithic tower of sound the sum of all parts came to be so instantly and how there was nothing that could stop them. They all seemed to be having such a good time too, whipping out hit after hit with the luxury of maybe a 3 second pause between songs. At one point one of the band members said, “Okay, dance retards, dance!” How could you not? I was afraid their set might be mostly made up of their latest record The Briefs Steal Your Heart which I haven’t really liked as much as their previous releases but I’m starting to warm up to it, but they actually played a set of songs from throughout their entire life as a band and uncannily it included everything I wanted to hear. I could have made it up myself all the way to the last song, one of my favorites called “Looking Through Gary Glitters Eyes” a sort of reworking of an old song by a band called The Adverts that was originally called “Looking Through Gary Gilmores Eyes” about the famous execution of a prisoner in the 70’s but the briefs changed it to be about the plight of british glam rock star Gary Glitter who was busted for his advanced interest in little children and child pornography and had the big hit song “Do You Wanna Touch (Me)” later covered by Joan Jett and the blackhearts. God , I just love this bands mind. Their lyrics are a thrill to hear and some of their songs, mostly “Anti-Social” have become like my theme song. This show was just about the most exalted and genuine punk rock moment I’ve experienced in some time. I’ll go to great lengths to see this band whenever I see the chance in the future. And if you all haven’t heard them start with their CD called Sex Objects. This is a great band who deserve your attention.