Chicago native Apocalypse Hoboken is the sort of band that could more easily pack a strong crowd into a smaller venue like Reggie’s, but their sound managed to fill The Congress Theater remarkably well. Vocalist Todd Pott kept all of his clothes on, unlike past performances, but his devotion to the crowd showed in the intensity of the set. Their dirty punk rock style and gnarly appearances kept their fans pounding off each other in a small but excited pit. The band has only played a few choice reunion shows in Chicago following their break up in 2001, but the high energy crowd responded well Friday night they came to the end of their set with the fast and rough “Microscopic.” Recently reunited punk rock veterans The Dead Milkmen haven’t lost anything in the way of skill, enthusiasm or irreverence in the 14 years since their breakup. Vocalist Rodney Linderman spends very little of his time on stage behind the keyboard and instead spends a good portion of the show fraternizing with the people who pushed their way to the front. The band did hit a snag when Linderman accidently omitted a verse of “Stuart,” but after realizing that fact, he apologized to the crowd saying “that was the first time I’ve ever fucked up ‘Stuart.’” Up to the end of the set he kept saying he would make it up to the crowd. High notes included the band’s probably best known song “Punk Rock Girl.” Vocalist Joe Genaro still sounds today very much like he did when the song was released in 1988. The Murder City Devils closed out the night at Congress with hard and dirty rock and roll show. The crowd charged the stage at the opening of the set and proceeded to play roughly an hour of thick and heavy noise. Fists punched the air during “Bear Away” and “Press Gang.” MCD, like Apocalypse Hoboken and The Dead Milkmen, have been broken up for several years and their show wasn’t without faults, but their style of rock and roll is far from perfect. Over at Subterranean The Aggrolites closed out the night with several hundred friends in a happy reggae dance party. They’re one of those bands that you can see over and over again and have insane amounts of fun each time they play “Countryman Fiddle” or “Dirty Reggae.” The set didn’t include “Work To Do” and a longer show would have been a great cap to a long evening. Despite all that however they didn’t miss a beat and kept the tempo high. No matter how predictable the encore of “Don’t Let Me Down” is, it never disappoints.
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