First thing’s first. The Tote has a fantastic jukebox in the frontbar. You don’t have the luxury of wandering into too many places these days where you can pick from bands such as MC5, Black Flag, Misfits, The Stooges, etc on the jukebox. Add to that the fact that the rest of the punters are pretty happy for you to load up a heap of tracks because there’s a pretty good chance they will all be good. But enough time in the frontbar, since the bands were playing out the back.

I had heard of Johnnie and the Johnnie Johnnies, but I couldn’t recall why…I decided it was probably because they had a good band name. But in terms of their music I didn’t have any idea what to expect, so I was very happy with what they delivered. The band played a great mix of surf rock and garage instrumental tracks, like the soundtrack to every great surf movie you’ve ever seen, with a slightly more hard edge. Who doesn’t love surf rock? Special mention must go to their bass player as well, who we learnt was filling in for an incapacitated member, and had picked up the gig so recently that she was playing from a chord sheet. Not a small achievement in front of a reasonably packed Tote, I wouldn’t have noticed if they hadn’t pointed it out.

King Cannons took to the stage to a huge ovation from the crowd. Originally from New Zealand, and for the most part tattooed and mostly dressed in black, the band dived straight into the first of a cavalcade of ska, punk and rockabilly tracks, to the delight of the large crowd. As soon as the band started playing I started to have images of reggae/punk a la The Specials and the Clash, and some of that great downright dirty ska that more punk-rockesque bands such as Rancid do and Operation Ivy did so well. This is a good mix for me. A particular highlight for me was the song Teenage Dreams, which is incidentally the single that this show was in honour of, a jumpy, ska number, which goes a long way to demonstrating what this band is all about. They played a reasonably long set, but unlike most of the time when that happens I found myself wishing that they would have played for longer. Also, they had some great merch to sell, but unfortunately were all sold out by the time I got around to buying some.

Given the amount of people who showed up to watch this band, and the reception that they received, I would not be surprised if King Cannons barged their way into the upper echelon of the local punk scene, and then went even further than that.