Tight Pants - Live at the Turf Club - May 10, 2006
The year was 2004. I had just wrapped up a powerful set at Dub’s Pub with my former band, Arthur Dent. With the help of a few friends, we were moving my keyboard out to Jake’s van when I was accosted by the rowdiest bunch of females I have ever met.
The accosters were actually all of the members of the Bleeding Hickeys, a now-defunct, but popular local punk band. These ladies were smoking, swearing, laughing, and probably grabbing their collective crotch. At the time, I was new to the Twin Cities, and I remember thinking, “These are my people!”
Fast forward to last Wednesday. I was at the Turf Club with my buddy, Jim. We were knee deep in an intense discussion on the merits of swiss cheese when a blistering sound came from the main stage. The individuals creating the sound make up local punk rock band, Tight Pants.
As the band blasted through their one-song soundcheck, it became apparent that Jim and I would be staying around longer than we anticipated (We are old and were planning on calling it a night at 9 p.m.- lame, I know.). Fore, as I scanned the stage, I realized that the guitar player for Tight Pants was none other than one of the aforementioned Bleeding Hickeys accosters!! Her name is Christina Schmitt, and she is definitely one of my people.
At 9:30, the band would again lay seige to the main stage at the Turf Club to play their entire set. As Schmitt blasted chunky guitar riffs and shining solos through her 4-foot-tall Fender amp, streaking bass lines by Ben Crew and hard hitting drum beats by Colin Swanson layed the foundation for lead singer, Alison Stolpa, to scream out choruses at the top of her lungs. The effect of all this was mezmerizing.
I was perplexed at how much energy was pumping from the small stage at the Turf!
Tight Pants blasted through a blistering 25-minute set that emitted a mix of Betty Crocker and intense anger as Stolta’s Crocker-esque homemaker dress set the tone for the tongue-in-cheek rowdiness that would prevail on the evening.
After they left the stage, I had the pleasure of meeting and conversing briefly with the band. And as I expected, they were nice, upstanding young citizens of these United States, intent on bringing rock to the proletariat. And they proved once again a fact that I had suspected - These are my people.
May 16th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
I think that Ben Crew’s got the magic touch. He was in Sweet J.A.P. and Real Estate Fraud, and is in The Divebomb Honey, all of which “rock,” as kids nowadays might say.