Cyber Tracks Christmas Party
Punk rock isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind around the holidays, but the first annual Cyber Tracks Christmas party is changing that one step at a time. The party showcased every band on the label and took place on December 21st at The Roxy Theater in West Hollywood. Label co-founders El Hefe and Jen brightened up this writer’s holiday season by stacking a bill with six diverse performances.
Margate kicked off the night with their upbeat and melodic style. They also gave Jeff Dahlin a taste of spotlight when they seamlessly converted to a four-piece. Alex Helbig belted out pop punk style lyrics from behind the drum kit to tracks like “Sally & Sadie Lou” and “Rock ‘n Roll Reserve”. Once their short set came to a close NOFX guitarist El Hefe played DJ with a mixture of punked-out Christmas tunes ranging from Bad Religion to Blink-182 between bands. A few minutes later Counterpunch bumped up the show’s pace with a much more aggressive style. As more fans flocked through the doors the night only continued to intensify.
Super group Implants burst onto the stage in holiday style with “Bah Humbug” Christmas hats, a red and white cape, Santa suit T-shirt, and Rob Ramos even wore a Christmas sweater. Implants which features members of Strung Out, Pulley, Ten Foot Pole and The Tank blew through most of the songs featured on their album, From Chaos to Order. They teased a new song and even threw in a sped up version of “Here Comes Santa Claus” to close out their set while Chris Aiken (Strung Out) tossed candy canes into the crowd.
This Legend was next on the bill. Benjamin Harper and Longineu Parsons may have taken some influences from their past time with Yellowcard but it is clear This Legend is carving out its own niche of loyal and dedicated fans. After forming this spring they wasted no time in producing their debut album, It’s In The Streets. This Legend put everything they learned on their recent tour with Lagwagon and Swingin’ Utters together for the audience at The Roxy. As Ben Harper and Stephen Neufeld bounced around stage as pop punk tunes like “It’s in the Streets”, and “My City” filled the theater.
As the next band set up, Fletcher Dragge (Pennywise), Jordan Burns (Strung Out) and El Hefe (NOFX) judged the ever-entertaining ugly sweater contest. About a dozen Christmas fanatics stumbled on stage and were quickly voted off. The three finalists were glad to win humongous goodie bags full of Cyber Tracks merch and snowboard gear, but the criteria for winning was never really specified. One winner emptied the contents of his bag by throwing the items into the crowd before walking off stage with a tremendous amount of applause.
The punk theme came to a halt when Warner Drive hopped on stage. Their hard rock and almost metal sound came as a brisk change of pace. A set of new fans filled in the floor during the bands set and didn’t seem to mind that the band started their set with house music still coming out the monitors. Warner Drive cranked the bass and drums up to eleven but left female guitarist Candice Levinson in their shadow.
Ten Foot Pole brought back the punk rock attitude with a lengthy set full of old and new tracks. They acknowledged every fan request thrown their way. Their set and witty banter really energized the crowd, and quickly had the entire audience singing along or banging their head.
After Ten Foot Pole’s set Cyber Tracks raffled off snow boards, merch, and cash to the large crowd, but the night was far from over. Useless ID lead singer Yotam Ben Horin preformed an acoustic set of tracks rarely heard live. The slower pace was a nice way to wind down the night and left this writer eagerly anticipating what Cyber Tracks has in store for next year.
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