Review: KC punks at OKC’s Everything is Not OK fest
The fourth annual Everything Is Not OK Fest in Oklahoma City this past weekend highlighted all of what’s right, and a little of what’s wrong, with punk rock in 2018.
OKC is pretty close to KC — about five hours by car — and each of the fest’s four years have featured a handful of Kansas City bands. On Thursday night, Warm Bodies headlined at the mid-sized 89th Street Club, a venue comparable to the old Beaumont Club, but more square than rectangular. Vocalist Olivia Gibb spent the set anxiously pacing the stage — at one point, briefly engaging in a frantic speed-walk across it on her knees — as her eyes darted in a new direction with every shriek she let out. A recent piece of record-store copy compared Warm Bodies to Rush, in the sense that many of the songs give each member a chance to shine for something resembling a solo. That’s hard to disagree with. The band tested out several tracks from its new LP. Stage dives ensued. It was easily the night’s most memorable set, and Kansas Citians should be excited to see the band when it returns from its upcoming three-week tour of Europe.
Despite missing the excellent Mentira on Saturday afternoon due to exhaustion and poor timing on my part — punk rock ruined my life, yada yada — I was able to catch Natural Man.
Performing on a small outdoor stage behind Red Cup, a charming coffee shop with walls covered in art and a chicken roaming about on the front lawn, the eccentric Kansas City seven-piece provided an early morning pick-me-up not unlike the cups of joe being consumed by the audience. Vocalists Ian Teeple and Stephanie Eckermann customized the lyrics of their opener, “Song About Your City,” just for the fest, bringing begrudging smiles to the faces of punks who had stayed out far too late the night before. The band seemed to answer the classic Minutemen question of “Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Truth?” with a resounding Yes.
Things took a turn on Sunday morning. In a slightly secluded area between a shopping-center parking lot and a residential neighborhood, Gibb performed a solo set as Miss Lady, an alter ego that sings about clay and being “a goofball.” Her persona in this setting is only slightly wackier than the one she inhabits as part of Warm Bodies. The set was both intentionally awkward and highly entertaining. Then a band from St. Louis called Q began its set, and pretty soon a small boat and an old Christmas tree were set on fire.
The audience seemed enthused at first, with some people dancing around the open flames. But the smoke spread pretty quickly. Soon, police officers and firefighters arrived at the scene. When it was all over, at least one attendee had been arrested.
As a result of the morning’s gig gone awry, the show scheduled for that afternoon was promptly canceled. At the fest’s final main show at 89th Street that evening, several bands spoke about their disappointment about the morning’s events. Some speeches were more vague and brief than others, but most touched on the fact that it was a white band’s set that resulted in a police presence, a Latinx person who was arrested, and that it was wrong of fest-goers to post photos that could incriminate non-white attendees. (The fest, organized by Ross Adams, who fronts the band American Hate, has since its inception has done an admirable job of including bands led by women, gender-nonconforming people, and — particularly this year — musicians of color.) While none of these talks were outright scoldings, words from Oakland band Mass Arrest seemed to receive the strongest response. The band’s singer, a black man, voiced his support for Q, but made it clear that now more than ever is the time for punks to support their black and brown peers.
