It’s official. The Lookout Lounge is the top punk rock club in Omaha. It’s got all the go-to items on the list, old show flyers plastered above the bar, band stickers on every surface, and the occasional fisticuffs between fans.
If all this wasn’t enough to scare off the uninitiated, on this particular night (5/28) the Lookout scored a bonus point for a horrendous poo smell that showed up right before the final act T.S.O.L
I have a theory on this. Apparently there was a fight during Scabby Ghouls’ set (unfortunately I arrived during the last song) between a band member of Hand Painted Police Car and someone in the crowd. I assume the person in the crowd was kicked out. What if that person snuck back in the club and took a revenge dump? Stranger things have happened. Anyways, many people in the crowd commented about the unholy stench. Hopefully it was just a person with a pants explosion and not a turd stuck behind the P.A. stack or something.
As I mentioned earlier, I missed the majority of Scabby Ghouls’ 25 minute set, but from the song I did catch, they sounded pretty solid! With driving guitar riffs and strong female vocals reminiscent of the Donnas, Scabby Ghouls make me want to get to the venue early next time!
Next up were local cave-man rockers Hand Painted Police Car. If you like straight forward rock with loud amps in the face, then look no further, HPPC is here to destroy you.
Following HPPC were old school Omaha punks RAF. These guys kept the energy up with a rambunctious set of punk-infused hard rock and metal. Lead singer Kelly stalked the stage and jumped into the crowd while guitarists Derek and Paul proceeded to shred. Lest we forget about the legendary Tim Cox behind the drum kit. He pounded away like a Tasmanian devil! RAF always delivers the goods.
The last band of the night was the super old school horror punk outfit True Sounds of Liberty, better known as T.S.O.L. I’ve known about the band for a long time, mostly from working with RAF drummer Tim while I was in college. Tim had the chance to tour with T.S.O.L on a couple occasions including a small Warped Tour run.
It was awesome hearing stories of life on the road and seeing someone truly live their musical dream! It would be like if I got to fill in for a roadie on a Deftones tour. (I’d like to say fill in for Chino, but I don’t have his chops and I don’t play any instruments.)
Anyways, T.S.O.L brought a nice sized crowd to the Lookout, especially for a Tuesday night directly following a holiday. Many of the folks were in their 40s and 50s, but I saw a few younger kids including this little dude in a Cro-Mags shirt! I talked to him and his dad and he’s been going to shows for a while now. He’s been to Slayer and even caught the Misfits reunion show at Riot Fest! I told him he had no idea how much punk rock street cred he’ll have in a few years.
T.S.O.L is truly one of the classic American punk bands to ever come out of California. Lead singer Jack Grisham said the band has been playing for over 40 years! It’s incredible that they are still going strong after all this time. They even released a new album last year “Trigger Complex”, and have plans to release more new music later this year or early next year.
Unfortunately, I only caught about the first third of the band’s set that night. There were several scuffles involving beer being thrown and the overbearing poo smell was just too much. Hopefully the next time T.S.O.L comes around things will go differently. Let us know if you were there and what your favorite part of the show was. Or if you have a theory about the poo smell please let us know.
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