Punk Rock Bowling - Sunday Night Club SHows w/Starving Wolves, Rumkicks & Judge
After Saturday night’s club show crawl, which included three venues that were some distance apart, I was glad to have Sunday night’s shows right next to each other. Fremont Country Club is the larger of the two venues, with Backstage Bar & Billiards right next door (and with a connecting door between them, for those that are lucky enough to have access).
These were both stacked shows. I hated to miss any of the bands, but at least I was covered with a ticket to both (Lower Class Brats, Starving Wolves, Rumkicks, and NÜTT were sold out). After careful consideration and hours of playing my Sunday night PRB playlist, I decided to start out at Backstage Bar & Billiards and end the night with Judge at Fremont Country Club. In the end, there were no regrets.
NÜTT at Backstage Bar & Billiards - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
NÜTT (Buena Park, CA) has been around since 2018, and I was not prepared for the onslaught that was about to go down. They have only two releases up on discogs.com, but five on Bandcamp, and they all rip. This band throws down some serious hardcore with a female vocalist who dresses like a Dominatrix and screams with the best of them. I was honestly at the show early to make sure that I didn’t miss Rumkicks, but I left talking about NÜTT. Every song was a ripper, and I was glued to the rail for the entire show.
Rumkicks at Backstage Bar & Billiards - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
Next up was Rumkicks (Seoul, South Korea), who were on tour with Starving Wolves. I wasn’t aware that South Korea had a punk scene, but given how truly great this band is, I’m guessing that they do. Similar to NÜTT, they have been around for just over 5 years. Their first full-length, “Born Rude,” was released in 2023, and I was an instant fan. They have a street punk look, the songs are ultra-catchy, and the Korean accents make their sound unique. They also benefit from really good production, including a series of professionally filmed YouTube videos that you really need to check out. They played a set full of their hits, which included “Drinking Every Day," “Rude Girl Oi!” and “Punk Rocker.” They also debuted a new song, “Let’s Go,” that ended up being one of my favorites.
Starving Wolves at Backstage Bar & Billiards - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
Starving Wolves started out with minor technical problems (David wanted more on vocals), but in the end, this was exactly the set that we hoped to see. If you aren’t familiar with David Rodriguez (aka David Tejas), he’s a staple at Punk Rock Bowling and also the lead singer of three of the greatest street punk bands of all time (Starving Wolves, The Casualties, and Krum Bums). The Casualties are one of my favorite bands, and I see them every chance I get. That was the primary reason that I originally wanted to see Starving Wolves, but after checking out their 2020 release “True Fire” and their 2024 release “The Fire, The Wolf, The Fang,” I would have been a fan regardless. As always, David was all over the stage, crowd surfing, and bringing the show out into the pit at times. One of the most energetic shows of the weekend, but as soon as they were done, I headed over to Fremont Country Club.
Punk Rock Bowling is known to feature bucket-list bands that we never expected to see live again, and this year for me, it was Judge. Judge was together from 1987 through 1992, and everything that they did are now classics. As a record collector in the 1980s and 1990s, their “Chung King Can Suck It” LP on white vinyl was one of the most sought-after by collectors, famously selling for high numbers (the high sale on Discogs right now shows $8,152.17). Even the original Schism press release of “New York Crew/Warriors (Blitz)” 7” would set you back a few hundred dollars if you could find it. Although they did a few reunion shows in 2013, I wasn’t aware that they had even played since the early 1990s when I saw the announcement for this show.
This was a late show that started at 1:00 am Vegas time, but Mike “Judge” Ferraro did not disappoint. They started off with “Fed Up!” and “Bringin’ It Down” and ended with the classics “New York Crew” and "Warriors.” Next year is Punk Rock Bowling’s 25th anniversary, and I’m guessing they are going to pull out all the stops, but this one is going to be hard to top.
