The most fun you can have in a dangerously overcrowded club watching a band from Denton, Texas

After playing at Thee Parkside on Friday night, The Marked Men were doing a 5 pm show yesterday at The Knockout. Tom and I headed down there after doing some recording in our practice space.

Holy shit. When we got there, there were maybe 50 to 60 people in line on the sidewalk outside. I don't know if you know The Knockout, but it's definitely not a line-outside kind of place.

So we make it in and it is crowded. I mean like Japanese subway crowded. Like nowhere to move crowded. It's a good thing there wasn't a fire crowded.

Anyway, we grabbed some tall Tecate cans and checked out the bands. We saw The Young Offenders, who were pretty much a straight-up punk band and were really good, and then The Arrivals, who Tom said reminded him of Dinosaur Jr. if Dinosaur Jr. had been faster.

So it's crowded as fuck, like I said, and pretty hot in there despite the fact that it's about 20 degrees outside with 75 mph winds, and here come The Marked Men.

Photo credit: I found this photo on Flickr, in "GoatLegSF"'s photostream. Thanks, GoatLegSF. BTW, isn't it amazing that you can get online and find photos of a show you were at the next day, taken by someone you don't even know? The Internet freaks me out.

In a word, they rocked. OK, that's two words, but you get what I mean. Fantastic, energetic performance. Reallly good songs. And here's the kicker - the sound was great. If you go to enough shows at clubs, you know that the sounds ranges from adequate to borderline unlistenable. But at this show, you could hear everything perfectly.

Anyway, it was like being 16 again, crammed into a room watching a band just give it their all, drinking cheap beer and just loving it.

So the show ended around like 8:30 or something. I love these early shows. For an old guy like me, they're perfect. So Tom and I went down to the The Argus Lounge and then El Rio and then we were both pretty lit and had to call it a night.