Those of you who read me regularly probably already know this, but I love Sloppy Seconds. (The band, not the deviant sex act.) I have a friend who shares that love, and we try to get to at least a couple of shows every year. This fall, for the first time in 18 years, SS is set to tour the west coast. (More on this at a later date.) This complicated things considerably, so we decided to forego our normal Greatful Dead-like devotion. Instead, we decided to turn our affection toward the recently reactivated Lillingtons. Fortunately, there were signs along the way that the spirit of Sloppy Seconds approved of what we were doing. (On the first night of our adventure, we were lucky enough to see Bobby Steele and The Undead. Steele and SS once recorded a cover of “Where Eagles Dare” together.)

After some serious thought and budget considerations, we decided to catch the two closest shows. They were Saturday August 26th in Chicago and Sunday August 27th in beautiful Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have already written about our Saturday night exploits, so our story begins on Sunday morning. We woke up slightly hungover, but no worse for the wear in our dumpy Southside of Chicago hotel room. From there we went back to Reggie’s for lunch and hopped on one of their buses going to the Chicago White Sox/Detroit Tigers game. We watched our lousy but beloved Tigers get stomped by the slightly lousier Sox. After seven innings of such punishment, we took the train back to the car and hauled ass to the Hoosier State.

We finally made it to The Brass Rail a few minutes after the supposed 9pm start time. The only listed opener was local mover and shaker Flamingo Nosebleed, so we didn’t want to be too late. It seems like any great punk show in Fort Wayne has this hard working trio on the bill. (They actually came to my attention because they were on the same label as Sloppy Seconds, Dave Parasite’s Kid Tested Records.) Luckily, they didn’t go on until closer to ten, so we caught their entire 21 minute set. FN was pretty great. They combined elements of pop-punk, horror punk and straight up snotty punk. It seemed like we were the only ones in the crowd who didn’t know every single word.

As for The Brass Rail, it couldn’t have been better. It’s very much the type of dive that I love. It’s intimate, the beer is cheap, and everybody is friendly. We watched the entire show standing in front of the bar, maybe eight feet from the small stage. Fort Wayne is about the same size as Grand Rapids (my local scene), but seems to get more cool, older, touring punk bands. (GR is a bit hipster.) It’s also about the same distance from me as Detroit and Chicago, and I might just have to start going there more often.

This show was in stark contrast to the night before at The Metro. There, The Lillingtons played for hundreds of people on a huge stage at a very professionally run venue with lots of visible security. At The Brass Rail, there was a soundman and two bartenders. There were maybe a hundred or so people packed around the odd shaped stage. The Lillingtons really seemed to thrive in this environment. Between song banter seemed to come easy, maybe because guitarist/vocalist Kody Templeman was guzzling beer. Bassist Cory Laurence (who wasn’t drinking), had to run to the bathroom between songs. Newer guitarist Alex Volonino’s screw ups became a running joke. They might have been hazing the new guy from New York.

Musically, they were sharp as ever. With their matching Flying V’s, they tore through 23 songs over the course of about an hour. Newer songs included “Project 313”, “Pyramids”, “Rubber Room”, “Until the Sun Shines” and “Insect Nightmares”. They threw in a couple of predictable older songs too with “I Got Abducted by a UFO” and “Lillington High”. “I Need Brain Damage” became the ultimate sing along, and the bulk of the songs came from Death By Television and The Backchannel Broadcast. In the end, it was similar to ,but more satisfying than the night before. My one regret is that I didn't buy the gray Project 313 seven inch in Chicago. I balked at the $10 price and didn’t want to take it on the train. I vowed to buy it the next night but it sold out. D’oh!

The Lillingtons also hung out to drink and talk to fans after the show. (The drummer was wearing a Sloppy Seconds T-shirt!) We ended up hanging out with some friendly folks from Indiana (SS is also from Indiana, Indianapolis to be exact) until the bar closed at 3am. This is a pretty rare occurrence at our advanced age. In the five minutes it took for our Uber to show up, someone bought another round of shots. My lasting memory was having one last shot of Jameson with my new friends. It was a fantastic night.

The Lillingtons setlist:

War of the Worlds

Final Transmission

I Saw the Apeman (On the Moon)

El Pamino

Project 313

Codename:Peabrain

Murder on My Mind

Phantom Maggot

Black Hole in My Mind

Don’t Trust the Humanoids

Mindcontrol

Invasion of the Saucermen

Pyramids

Badman With the Devil’s Hand

I Need Brain Damage

Rubber Room

I Came From the Future

Until the Sun Shines

Thunderball

I Got Abducted by a UFO

X-Ray Specs

Encore:

Insect Nightmares

Lillington High