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Battalion of Saints at Lookout
Date and time
Location
Lookout Lounge
320 South 72nd Street Omaha, NE 68114Performers
Headliners
- Battalion of Saints
Refund Policy
Description
Lookout Lounge Presents:
Battalion of Saints
with Special Guests:
The Cryptics
R.A.F.
TBA
Friday, October 6th, 2017
Doors: 7 PM, Show: 8 PM
$10 ADV/$12 DOS
ALL AGES - Everyone must have a valid ID. Under 18 needs to be accompanied by a parent or guardian or have a notarized parental permission form: http://www.lookoutomaha.com/parental-consent-form
ALL SALES ARE FINAL. NO REFUNDS.
For show/venue info go to: www.lookoutomaha.com
Battalion of Saints
https://www.facebook.com/battalionofsaints/
Formed originally under the name the Nutrons, in 1978 by George Anthony and guitarist Dave Astor (R.I.P.; father of former Locust/present Cattle Decapitation drum wizard Dave Astor Jr.), the Battalion of Saints were influential not only in San Diego and on America’s West Coast, but internationally as well, collaborating and touring with well-known British punk acts Discharge, Broken Bones, the U.K. Subs, and the Exploited.
The Saints were real punks, playing true hardcore punk music: violent, loud, fast, and political, at a time when hardcore was still fresh and not a commercial product. Punk in the early ’80s was an ideology, not just a fashion statement; individuals expressed themselves radically through their attitudes, their clothing, and their music. Battalion’s songs railed against the government, big corporations, televangelism, and police brutality.
On a song titled “E/B,” singer George Anthony screams, “The government controls all our lives / When they pump us full of lies / Large corporations are all the same / What do they think — we have no brains?” Nearly every song has a political or social message — commentary rarely, if ever, heard in commercial “punk” bands these days.
“The music scene is going downhill. It’s gone downhill,” said Battalion's Chris Smith in 1981 KGTV channel 10 news feature.
Dated by his bottle-blonde punk mullet, Smith’s rant against commercial rock continues with “Styx, Van Halen, all that garbage that’s on the radio, you know? It’s deteriorating your brain.”
The band's manager was Marc Rude, who drew countless local concert flyers and record covers for the Misfits, the Offspring, L.A. Guns, and others. Rude helped run Dead or Alive concert productions, which brought punk acts such as Black Flag, the UK Subs, GBH, and the Subhumans to San Diego in the early '80s. He died in 2002.
The original Battalion lineup released the Fighting Boys 12" EP and the album Second Coming, as well as appeared on several compilations. Much of this material has been re-released on the Taang! Records Death-R-Us CD.
"I left the band in ’85 because Chris [Smith] and George [Anthony] were trying to screw me over because their heads got too damn big," says original drummer Ted Olson. "On the album, Second Coming, Chris played all guitars and bass. We had gone through so many bass players that the guy that played bass for us when we recorded couldn’t play the songs well enough, so Chris did the bass."
They frequently played long-gone local venue Straita Head Sound. According to the band's MySpace page, "The Batts were one of the most furious and nihilistic bands in all of Southern California in the early to mid '80s, leading to the deaths of many of the original members." Too true.
The punk-rock lifestyle was unforgiving for Battalion. Before the band’s breakup in 1985, several of the many early members had died.
Guitarist Chris Smith overdosed in a bathtub, Dave Astor committed suicide, another member died of drug-related health problems, and a fourth died from AIDS. Though destruction was the banner of many early punk bands, Battalion set a precedent and laid the foundation of what was to come in San Diego for the rest of the decade, which included other hardcore bands and various incarnations of punk.
Battalion of Saints split in 1985.
Ten years later, in 1995, singer George Anthony reformed the band with his friend Terry Bones (of Discharge and U.K. Subs), playing and recording for a few years. The revised lineup with Bones put out one EP and the Cuts CD, on Taang! Records, which also released a compilation called Death R Us. Anthony was the original member of this lineup (usually dubbed Battalion of Saints A.D.), since two others had died and Olson refused to participate.
In 2002, Battalion of Saints reared its head yet again with a lineup featuring bassist Matt Anderson (Heroin), guitarist Scott Bartoloni (Heroin, Clikitat Ikatowi) , drummer Steve Gearhardt (Total Chaos), second drummer Mario Rubalcaba (Hot Snakes, Rocket from the Crypt), and guitarist "TK" Londis Kues (Crucified Youth, TOF).
In 2006, audio-restoration specialist Eric Van der Wyk of King Tet Productions remastered the band's Second Coming album. According to Van der Wyk, "George Anthony -- he's one of the only members who's not dead -- he couldn't find anyone else in San Diego who could remaster it from vinyl.... I just made a deal to do the reissue, too."
Singer George Anthony had a role in the 2007 film Numb, which was set in 1983 and covered the simultaneous declines of the punk and "new romantic" scenes. The cast included Unwritten Law singer Scott Russo, Matt Hensley (Flogging Molly), and DJs Robin Roth and Mike Halloran.
The reunited punks shot a video and show at Shakedown on May 22, 2011.
September 2015 found the band reunited again under George Anthony, on a west coast tour (hitting Brick By Brick September 19) that was followed on October 30 by a new self-titled 7-inch on the Southern Lord label featuring three tracks; "Darkness," "Bombs," and "Nightmare."
The lineup at the time featured Anthony backed by drummer Mike Vega (Hirax), bassist Matt Vicknair (Angry Samoans), and guitarist Nate Javier (Angry Samoans).
The Cryptics
https://www.facebook.com/thecrypticsofficial/
Andy [left] moved to New Hampshire all the way from Michigan to join permanently. Anthony Calderone [right] joins us from Groveland, MA and picked up bass duties putting me on standalone vocals from here on out. Taylor [back] has been with me since August 2015. It’s been 2 1/2 years since there’s been an official lineup. I’ve never been more excited to play with anyone than these guys. We’re all here for the same reasons. We’re all here for the right reasons. We’re very excited to bring you this new album and an absolutely packed 2016/17. Major thanks to Christian Moquin, Logan Miller & Chris Peters who filled in repeatedly to keep this all moving between lineups.
R.A.F.
https://www.facebook.com/RAFomaha/
R.A.F. (Ready Aim Fire) began in 1984, as most punk bands do... High School friends who met at the proverbial teen dives like the Subterranean Cafe, that catered to the artsy outcasts. The original "group" consisted of Paul Moerke(guitar), Todd Putnam(bass), Pat Buchannan(drums)and Matt Miller on vocals. Todd only lasted a couple practices before Dave Fowler replaced him on Bass.
The original name for the band was Progressive Destruction. This was the era of Omaha greats like No Heroes, Self-Gratifukation and the legendary Naughty Virgins, Digital Sex and just a handful of underground bands that fed discontent kids with a feeling of universality. A Place to be "me" in a world saturated by shopping mall culture, mainstream radio and high schools focused on America's sports obsession.
The first time I saw "Progressive Destruction" was at St. Lukes Gym(across the street from Burke HS). At the time I was living in Sioux City and playing in a band called The Malcontent with Seth Kirshman, Joe Japel and Peter Phillips. We came down to Omaha for the show cause Pete had been in Omaha at Drastic and saw the flyer: Progressive Destruction w/ Social Standing... lol A preppy band doing Modern English covers...Then came PD!
At this point PD had recruited Jimmy Homan from the recently defunct No Heroes. So Paul, Jimmy, Matt, David and Pat came on. You have to think back that this was a church gymnasium that had "Teen Night" where as long as it was kept "clean"?, anybody could play there. and PD blew us away!! After the show we immediately hooked up with PD and exchanged numbers. It was the beginning of a long term connection with the Sioux City/Omaha punk scene.
We then set up a show for The Malcontent with the now, newly named RAF and Cellophane Ceiling(with original singer Jeannette). It was phenomenal!!
Naturally the next step was to have RAF play in Sioux City. Don't remember who set this up, but the show was at a hall in Hinton, Ia(outside Sioux City). The show featured RAF(featuring Bob Nisi on drums), The Malcontent, and a band from DesMoines, IA (cant remember the name) but THIS night goes down in my history as the best youthful night in my life. We posed the show as a "benefit" for the soup kitchen and offered that if you brought canned goods, you'd get a dollar off admission.
We expected a very sparse audience, but in contrast(because of Pete Phillips flyers all around town) there were nearly 200 people there. After the show the DesMoines kids had to head back, but all the Omaha kids and us headed up to Stone State national Park where we hung out all night at "the cave" fire pit. til sunrise. This was the night that Omaha and Sioux City merged into a unified scene that continues to this day.
Shortly after, (cutting it to a nutshell) I left the Malcontent and moved to Omaha as I just needed to get out of Sioux City(harsh memories and a bad breakup with my girlfriend) I needed out! So... May 16th 1985 I moved to Omaha and hung out with and met 100's of people at the never ending parties. Living outta my car and new friends houses/apts. Then, one day... burnt out, hungover, sleeping ing my car with Sean Birchard after a party at Ron Yorks apt. ... in the parking lot, passed out, Paul Moerke knocks on my window. "hey man... Bob Nisi cant play with us. His father wont let him play in a Punk band. You want the gig, you got it"..
At this time, somewhere down the line, Matt Miller said that Dereck Higgins would play bass.(Matt had met him through counseling) It's very fuzzy here as the summer of '85 was a non stop party. We played back yard parties as I learned the songs. We wrote new stuff and RAF just happened to be in the right place at the right time. There was such a community of people and bands, Like Cordial Spew, who just made it feel unreal.
RAF manged to record and press a "tape" in 1986 and went on to open for a plethora of bands at the Lifticket and so many other halls. We opened for the Dead Kennedys at the Music Hall and played continuosly through 1987. At that point, the band was completely engulfed in some pretty heavy drug and alcohol abuse, Meth came into the picture for Matt, and it pretty much fell apart from there. When we officially broke up, I was devastated. But we moved on to other bands(great bands actually), but I think we all always missed playing together. After many "reunion shows" with several different singers, including Matt at times, we just faded for a while. We needed time to just grow the fuck up.
Now, for the first time in 27 years we've played as a back up band for Rikk Agnew, Played several shows with the incredible talents of Danny Vigilante(Stewart) and Kelly Collier(on vocals), We've decided to just DO IT again. New songs, new perspective and totally stoked to be playing together again. Paul Moerke, Dereck Higgins, Tim Cox, Danny Vigilate and Matt Miller giving a big thumbs up for Kelley Collier on vocals.
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Lookout Lounge is a venue dedicated to bringing the very best underground punk, metal, rock, hip-hop and comedy acts to Omaha, Nebraska. It is located right in the center of the city, just south of 72nd and Dodge.