Mezzos, Cumberland, MD – 12 Aug 2022
A semi-reliable recollection of the first two days of Savage Mountain Punk Fest.
I blame it on Sloppy Seconds. If it wasn’t for them headlining in 2021, I probably never would have heard of Savage Mountain Punk Fest. After sitting on our geriatric punk asses for the better part of a year and a half due to Covid, it seemed perfectly reasonable to drive eight hours to western Maryland for an obscure punk festival. Now after attending two in a row, I might just be a lifer.
Last year we went for two days, and attended two of the four separate shows. This year we added a day and they consolidated the schedule, so we went to all three shows over the course of three evenings. Thursday and Friday started at 7pm and featured six bands each night, and Saturday started at 5pm and promised a whopping nine bands. For the sake of (at least attempting) brevity, I will split my adventures in two. Thursday and Friday will be part 1, and Saturday will be part 2.
Savage Mountain Punk Fest is held at Mezzos in downtown Cumberland, MD. The upstairs is a fairly decent bar/restaurant, and the bands play in the much more bare bones basement. The stage is at the bottom of the stairs on the street side, with windows behind it so you can see the bands from the sidewalk. The room is long and thin, with a bar on one side. It also juts off in the back in an L shape, so there’s plenty of room for merch. After our long drive, we were checking into the hotel about the time the first band was taking the stage on Thursday. Between that and dinner, we missed a couple of bands.
The first band we caught a whole set from was The Downstrokes. This seemed appropriate, since the band is fronted by festival organizer Gerry LaFemina. To be fair, the fest is actually thrown by Savage Mountain Punk Arts. Gerry is the president of the SMPA arts board, which is a registered non-profit. SMPA is able to access grant money, and is very good at partnering with the local community. This allows them to draw some really cool bands to Cumberland, and may be a viable model for other smaller communities.
Anyway, The Downstrokes play punk with echos of garage rock, early ‘80s alt-rock and even a little classic rock. They’re a local favorite, and these older guys have released a couple of really solid 12-inches (Fall In Love With Punk Rock Again [2019] and Unsafe At Any Speed [2021]) on Coffin Curse Records. They got the crowd singing along to songs like “Unsafe at Any Speed”,”The Lies that We Believed”, “Time Bomb”, and especially “F.U.B.A.R.”.
Bastard Bearded Irishmen are Pittsburgh’s answer to Dropkick Murphys or Flogging Molly. I didn’t know many of the songs, but they provided some wonderful drinking music. (Not that we really needed any help with that.) Baltimore’s Handguns headlined on Thursday night. These guys looked very young, and played an emo tinged brand of pop punk. By the time they came on, a lot of locals had already headed home to bed. Handguns weren’t really my thing, but I mostly enjoyed their set. (I’m sure my heroic PBR consumption helped.) It was pushing one AM when they finished, and we shuffled back to the hotel.
Friday we had an amazing lunch at Lost Mountain BBQ, and also took a little time to explore neighboring Frostburg. We hit a pretty decent little record store called Yellow K, and even managed a short nap before showtime. When we got our new wristbands and headed to the upstairs bar, I was happy to see and share a drink with some fellow Michiganders. We’ll get into this more in a minute.
Chupaskabra started things off on Friday with their interesting blend of ska (obviously), dub and punk. They were also a visually interesting group. The singer wore a white lab coat like a mad scientist. One guitar player had a lovely pink blouse and skirt, which matched nicely with his gray beard and captain’s hat. There were a couple young kids helping with backing vocals, and they even covered the country classic “Islands in the Stream”. We were definitely off to an interesting start.
Next up were the previously alluded to Michigan pals Norcos Y Horchata. The newer trio is led by a couple of guys very familiar to Detroit punk fans. Guitarist/vocalist Amado Guadarrama has been in quite a few great bands (Bill Bondsmen, The Catfish, Bump-N-Uglies, Devious Ones) over the course of more than 25 years. Dougie Tangent, like any reliable drummer, plays in a bunch (The Putz, Devious Ones, The Dewtons, Hayley and the Crushers) of bands too. Touring bassist Kole is a Grand Rapids native who also did stints in a number of bands, most famously Red Scare Industries artist The Lippies.
Norcos Y Horchata march to the beat of a different drum, and aren’t particularly similar to any of the previously mentioned bands. Their sound is jagged and unorthodox, but still catchy. The record incorporates some strange instrumentation, but the live show is a stripped down, more straightforward affair. Forever Disheveled might be the sleeper hit of 2022. “Chords Against Humanity” is certainly my feel good (bad?) jam of the summer. Needless to say, I enjoyed their set.
Ghost Road were up next, but I mostly missed them to grab a bite to eat. I liked what little I heard. The Prozacs were definitely on my must see list. I’ve been listening to the band for quite a while, but had never seen them live. They played an action packed set that recalled the golden era of ‘90s pop punk like The Queers and Screeching Weasel. It was tons of fun. They also had one of the most impressive collections of merch that I’d ever seen for an independent band…
…At least until I saw The Jasons’ layout. They had so many (copyright infringing?!?) T-shirts, CDs, and various other stuff that it was a bit overwhelming. (Unfortunately, no vinyl that I didn’t already have.) Beyond their masterful merchandising, The Jasons stole the show on Friday night. Their infectious combination of raw energy, catchy songs, showmanship and Friday the 13th schtick carried the day.
The “Crystal Lake” quartet always wear their Jason masks, and never break character. Musically it’s mostly pop punk, but they’re not afraid to incorporate their headbanging roots or steal bits of some of the greatest punk and metal songs ever written. Tracks like “American Slasher”, “Blood in the Streets”, “Mama Got Beheaded by a Bimbo” and “Red-Blooded American Punk Rock” will get stuck in your head for days. I sang along to almost every song.
I’m not a ska fan, but I must admit that Mephiskapheles were also very entertaining. Singer Andre “The Nubian Nightmare” Worrell is an imposing figure, and really helps to sell the whole “Satanic ska” thing. By this point in the evening the beers were really starting to add up, and I was sort of entranced by the saxophone player, who seemed to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Overall, Friday was a really strong night of music.
Confessions of a merch whore: On Thursday, I grabbed a copy of The Downstrokes’ 2021 LP Unsafe At Any Speed (marbled gray). On Friday I got a Defiant State/Chupaskabra split 7”, a Norcos Y Horchata Forever Disheveled limited tour edition LP (49 of 100) and a J Prozac/Jeffrey Thunders split 7” (red).
Part-time punk writer, suburban dad and angry old man. Follow my adventures on the Punk Till I Die podcast!
