Day two of our Sloppy adventure was Saturday August 27th. It did not start with nearly as much promise as the previous day. We found ourselves in a ratty hotel room in Chinatown on the southside of Chicago. We were hungover. Bad. It took everything we had to get cleaned up and out of there by our noon checkout time. Fortunately, after a delicious Chinese lunch and copious amounts of caffeine we were feeling much better and were ready for the three plus hour drive to The Emerson Theater in Indianapolis.

This was going to be Sloppy Seconds’ first hometown show in three years and we were looking forward to sharing the fun with the locals. After we found our downtown hotel, we hopped a cab to The Emerson and showed up early in hopes of grabbing dinner at the sports bar across the street. I guess I wasn’t surprised to find it out of business. Our plan B was the pizza place next door. Also out of business. The east Indianapolis neighborhood, much like The Emerson itself, is in a serious state of decline. The only surviving ‘restaurant’ was McDonald's. I can’t imagine the last time I choked down the golden arches. It was as bad as I remembered, and I’ve gotten my food quicker at fine dining establishments.

We’d been to The Emerson before, so we sort of knew what to expect. It’s a dumpy old movie theater in a run down part of town that calls itself Indiana’s best all ages venue. (I’d hate to see the second best.) All the seats are torn out and it’s painted completely black inside. There’s virtually no security. The floor slopes down, making good sightlines its one redeeming quality. The show was advertised as having beer. Once again, I guess I wasn’t very surprised to find out they didn’t get their permit. It’s normally a dry venue, but you can get in and out so everyone leaves to drink. J Clydes is a small dive bar just around the corner and it gets packed on show nights. You can barely move in there, and it takes forever to get a drink. We were ordering four beers at a time (two each), and drinking them as fast as we could get them. J Clydes is part of the fun of the experience, but pretty much guarantees that you miss at least part of the show.

We got into the venue in time to catch about half of Public Animal # 9’s 45 minute set. They are older local guys who play a loving tribute to early Alice Cooper. They go all out with vintage instruments, white 70’s suits, wigs and makeup. The kids seemed to enjoy the bigger hits like “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, but didn’t seem to know the deeper album cuts. For the record, I’ve been on a major early Alice Cooper kick lately and I thought they were pretty decent. While they were playing, I couldn’t help but notice the sound of a circular saw in the background. Someone was trying to fix the leaky ceiling in the men’s room and had both of the urinals blocked off, leaving a single toilet. After waiting in line and draining my bladder, I noticed the single toilet wouldn’t flush. I figured it was good for maybe ten more pisses. (In their defense, the urinals were later available. Unfortunately, they were so close together that to use both you had to rub shoulders with your co-pisser.)

We totally missed the next band, South Bend’s Virgin Mobile Meth Lab. As you probably already suspected, we were drinking at J Clydes. Sorry dudes, I hope you had an awesome set. Ricky Rat Pack was next and they definitely had an awesome set. I remember Ricky from his days playing guitar in Detroit’s glam punk favorites the Trash Brats. He’s kept a similar musical style since relocating to Indy. Think New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders or the Dead Boys. It’s really good stuff with lots of rock and roll swagger. We watched as much as we dared before making one last beer run.

The Emerson was packed when Sloppy Seconds went on about 10:00 pm. For a band that’s most closely associated with pop-punk, they sure do draw wide variety of anarcho and crust punx. It seemed like all of Indiana’s finest were there. There were enough liberty spikes, face tattoos, GG Allin T-shirts and body odor for a Casualties show. The large and fairly rough pit never slowed down. There were constant stage divers and crowd surfers despite the huge ‘No Stage Diving’ sign. My slightly numbed but lightning quick reflexes were the only thing that saved me from getting hit in the face with a filthy Converse All Star. This was definitely the rowdiest crowd I’ve ever seen at a Sloppy Seconds show. It was also hot. Really hot. Most of us were dripping with sweat. That made it that much grosser when guys started taking their shirts off. Speaking of undressing, at least one bra and one pair of panties made it up onto the stage. B.A. obliged the audience by wearing them on his head for a song or two. You could feel the band feeding off the energy of the crowd.

The sound at The Emerson was typically terrible, muddy with too much drums. The band made up for it with their typical humor and an inspired performance. B.A. made fun of the fact that there was no beer before “Shut Up and Pour Me a Drink”. He complained about how there were too many hipsters in his neighborhood and then they launched into “Let’s Kill the Trendy”. Earlier, when I caught the shoe that almost broke my nose, I just tossed it on the ground at my feet. Later, its partner showed up near me. After the show I saw a kid walking out in his socks and was able to reunite him with his lost footwear. It was a pop-punk miracle! Despite the comedy of errors, it turned out to be a great, fun show. When it was all over we took a cab to the bar closest to our hotel. We drank at a pretty good clip, but were unable to make up for the beerless hour and a half we spent sweating. Day two was awesome, and ended on a much more lucid note than day one.

Sloppy Seconds Setlist:

Conned Again

You’ve Got a Great Body, But Your Record Collection Sucks

Why Don’t Lesbians Love Me?

I Don’t Wanna Be a Homosexual

Mighty Heroes

Come Back Traci

Color it Gray

You Can’t Kill Joey Ramone

Fifteen Minutes...Or It’s Free

The Horror of Party Beach

Let’s Kill the Trendy

Kegs R 4 Kids

Black Mail

Human Waste

Shut Up and Pour Me a Drink

Your Sister

I Want ‘Em Dead

Take You Home

Ice Cream Man

So Fucked Up

Encore:

Steal Your Beer

Janie is a Nazi