The Distillers at The Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC

by Yasmin Hannah

Punk fans rejoiced last night at The Commodore Ballroom as The Distillers brought in an excited and amped up crowd. As soon as I saw the eclectic array of brightly coloured hair and many shades of denim, I could feel my energy rise. I knew this was going to be a good show. I grabbed some ear plugs and made my way into the sea of sweaty punks.

The first band, Monster Watch; a 3 piece from Seattle had the crowd moving at the get-go. With the right amount of angry punk, funk and everything in between. Their spacey guitar riffs resemble that of surfer rock, that combined with the sharp, much harsher punk vibes makes for a fresh surfer punk combo. - It worked! The singer channeling quite cleverly some Seattle sound with very early Cobain like vocals. The drummer, on point gaining the momentum of the crowd with Zack Hill like arms.

Next up... a local Vancouver band, The Pack AD. A badass female psych garage rock duo. Formed in 2006, The Pack A.D. consists of Becky Black (vocals and guitar) and Maya Miller (drums.) Everyone was already moshing from song one, I know this for a fact as beer spilled over into the photo pit, actually many a beer spilled into the photo pit. We were splashing and sploshing and snapping! Dodging crowd surfers that came quite literally overhead. This just excited me more!

The two had an essence of a female led White Stripes come grunge-esque Veruca Salt vibes. With fiery red hair and a fantastically flamboyant red blazer, Black took the stage by storm and the two performed flawlessly.

The Distillers are among the best modern-day female-fronted punk rock bands that stormed the California punk scene at the turn of the century. Fans have been eagerly anticipating the band to reunite since their split in 2006. They strolled on stage and the crowd roared, naturally. For those of you still fresh in the world of punk, Brody Dalle is a main feminist icon for punk rock. Dalle co-wrote, played guitar and provided vocals for nearly every track on all the band's albums. She did not disappoint last night! Vocals as sharp as ever, with a radiant rasp and punk rock rage to amp up the tempo. I looked around, I see the bassist is the spitting image of my buddy rocking alongside next to me. Both as involved as each other. Beer flying everywhere, noses getting whacked, elbows in all the wrong places...Just like a punk show should be. They played almost the entirety of the renowned album ‘Coral Fang’ ending with ‘Drain The Blood’ in the encore.

I’d say leaving a gig beer and sweat drenched calls for a damn good punk show!