The Expendables, Authority Zero & The Supervillains Review

The Crocodile Cafe (Seattle)

23 August 2007

For those unfamiliar with the Crocodile Café in Seattle, it’s a dingy little club downtown, where some of grunge’s greats played before making the big time. Just recently the Beastie Boys played there and I can’t imagine what that would have been like to see them performing so up close and personal in front of only about 500 people.

This was no Beastie Boys, but tonight’s show featured three talented bands in their own right, starting off with The Supervillains. This was the second time for me seeing these ‘bro-skis’ (their word not mine) from Florida and each time I see them the more and more I am impressed with these guys. The band brings a healthy mix of reggae, ska and punk, punctuated by two horn players. With only a 30 minute set, the band played the more popular songs from its back catalogue, such as 20 Excuses, Beaches, and crowd favorite Mary Jane & Jagermeister. It’s handy the band’s most popular song had the tour sponsor’s name in it and not some other alcoholic brand. OPM knows what I am talking about - El Capitan.

Authority Zero took to the stage after The Supervillains did a nice job of warming up the Seattle crowd. Authority Zero consistently puts on a great show, mainly due to the energetic efforts of lead singer Jason DeVore. This guy did not stop for a full hour and by the band’s set end, him and half the crowd were a sweaty mess. The only slight disappointment was there was no real surprises in the set list, basically a couple of new joints from the most recent album and old favorites such as A Passage In Time, Mesa Town and One More Minute.

It was refreshing to see The Expendables headline up here as the band played close to an hour and a half. It gave them the chance to play plenty of new songs and I think we came close to hearing almost the whole new album that’s coming out soon (4 Sept). The good news is the new songs are just as good, if not better than its old stuff. The Expendables took to the stage with a shirtless vocalist Geoff Weers, to the delight of some of the ladies in the crowd. Opening with One More Time the band never took a backward step, continually mixing the old with the new.

Early on in The Expendables set the crowd received a special treat when Jason Devore came out and did co-lead vocals on a new punkish song, Not Going to Fade Me (correct title?). With Donavon (Expendables sound man and manager) on mixing sound board duties you couldn’t have asked for a better mix with 24-7 and Tight Squeeze sounding particularly amazing.

In all honestly, I don’t know if there is a greater song to witness live, than when The Expendables break into the metal punk breakdown of Sacrifice. It’s almost like a spiritual awakening and boy does it bring it a big old smile to my face. It obviously had the same effect and more so on this Rastafarian guy there too, who broke down into some of the best break-dancing you have seen since Breakdance 2: Electric Booglaoo. It was a sight I'm telling you.

By 12.30am, The Expendables had thoroughly conquered Seattle, ending with Bowl for Two and Burning Up. Their stage presence and ability to entertain is improving greatly every time I see them and I have to give a personal shout out to Raul Bianchi, that man is an animal on guitar. Slightly Stoopid definitely knew what they were doing when the signed these guys to its label, cause it’s only a matter of time before The Expendables will be in the same league. I am sure of it.

Reviewed by Pilipo