The Expendables at the Aggie

Since I just transplanted to Colorado from Pittsburgh, the opportunities to see great music up and down the Front Range are plentiful and the Aggie is a great venue for seeing music in an old school, down-and dirty locale. S

The opening band, Katastro, played good music but lacked stage presence. While I enjoyed their melodies they sort of blended into the background. They could work a bit more on generating a relationship with their audience.

Ballyhoo! turned that around once they took the stage. The well over six foot front man showed powerful stage presence as they played a traditional punk-reggae blend.

The Expendables are self-described as California surf, punk and reggae, which is a blend they pull off well. By the end of the show I had gone from slam dancing to hippie love. They kept the crowd moving all night, and had plenty of people crowd surfing throughout the night. There were shoes lost.

I was most impressed by their ability to transition from each genre and make it sound right. Despite giving the crowd a high-powered performance their musical talents are what kept me feeling good through the show. They are repping Santa Cruz well. I just transplanted from Pittsburgh making it especially enjoyable to listen to them play the encore, “Smoked a Bowl for Two” and watching everyone smoke up.