HANG ON, Snõõper. Please, No Bed Bugs in the Pool.
Snõõper Bed Bug-All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
Before every festival, with Punk Rock Bowling (PRB) being no exception, I listen to all of the bands that I haven’t heard before. Shows are a lot more enjoyable if I know a few songs, and pick out one or two to listen for and to sing along to. For Snõõper, ‘Bed Bugs’ was the one that caught my ear right away.
Snõõper was a band that I was particularly excited to see. Over and over, I saw people arguing on social media that this year’s line-up was all bands that we’d seen before… and over and over, the response would be to listen to the new bands, with a particular shout-out to Snõõper.
The Pinky Rings-All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
The pool parties are always the most fun, outdoors on the Citrus Grand Pool Deck with the mosh pit in the pool. Snõõper would be even more exciting given their props and matching costumes, sound bites, and three guitar players. To boot, there were several opening bands that I also hadn’t seen live before that I was really looking forward to.
Vial-All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
The Pinky Rings are from Austin, Texas and have been around since 2019–and they’re known for playing with high energy. Several of the members switched places during the set (so we heard multiple singers), and several times ventured out into the audience between the stage and the pool.
Vial is a dynamic, all-girl punk rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has also been around since 2019. I got to see Vial twice as they also played on the main stage at the festival later in the day. Vial added some interesting dialogue between songs, including a funny story about a spider that I won’t elaborate on (other than I got to hear it twice).
Snõõper is a punk band from Nashville, filling out the bill with another female lead (which works perfectly for this band). We knew they were in the house when we saw their crew rolling up their huge papier-mâché props that included a giant 8-ball and a traffic light that held some of their special effects equipment used during the set. This was an exciting set highlighted by the band constantly moving around the stage, the singer wading through the audience and one of the guitarists hanging from the scaffolding over the front row. They played their marquee song “Bed Bugs” in the middle of the set, and at the end, during a brief pause, a huge bed bug appeared in the crowd and moshed with the fans. After a few minutes, the costume came off and it was revealed that it was actually the lead singer who’d made a quick costume change! After getting back home from PRB, I found out that Snõõper is going to be playing at a local club (Third Man Records in Detroit) and we quickly made plans to see them again.
Snõõper All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
