Millions of Dead Cops, Embrace The Kill, The Creeps, and The Shitthieves

by Jack Diablo
All the crust kids and gutter punks assembled at Jack Rabbits on April 9th for rowdy, old-school punk rock.
My first thought when I walked through the door was that this was some of the most adorable stuff I’d seen in a long time. The place was chock full of pre-pubescent tweens clad in obligatory leather jackets with the same decorations and accessories you can expect to find at any punk show in any city. Exploited, Casualties, and GBH patches – check. Studs and spikes- check. Mohawks and liberty spikes – check. I even watched a kid pierce his cheek with a safety pin to impress his friends and earn those hard to come by punk-rock points. It was enough to make a former punk giggle and any mother cringe.
Except for one mom, decked out in her own studded and patched jacket, who joined the group of unruly youth in their excitement. Again, absolutely adorable!
The Shitthieves started things off with vulgar and obscene takes on familiar cover songs. Some of it was clever and funny while the rest was lewd and offensive, but the kids loved it. The music was a kind of acoustic cow-punk that gave new meaning to the term “Dirty South.” If you can wrap your head around it, picture the love child of G.G. Allin and David Alan Coe (both covered by the band) and you’re halfway there.
Next up was The Creeps, a group of aging punk rockers with song titles as trite as ‘F*** the Government’ and a lead singer who could easily have been some of the audience’s grandfather. With a PBR in hand, he did his best Joe Queer/Duane Peters impression that seemed like too much of an act to be taken seriously. Kind of sad really.
Embrace The Kill took the stage and proceeded to give me a headache with their blend of metal-punk and screamy spaz-core. It wasn’t bad, but it did assault the senses.
Finally, hardcore punk outfit Millions of Dead Cops took us back to the glory days of old-school punk. Politically charged and frequently associated with pioneers such as Jello Biafra, the band has managed to remain true to its somewhat underground roots despite having formed twenty years ago. Over the years, MDC has changed cities, names and members but remained consistent in both sound and subject matter.
Sometimes seeing classic acts past their prime can be somewhat depressing (Bad Brains at Harvest of Hope, for example) but these guys kept it pretty real. In these times when punk rock has shown us its softer side, it is refreshing to watch a group that has been able to keep it raw and unfiltered for so long.

Links
Millions of Dead Cops – http://www.myspace.com/mdc
Embrace The Kill – http://www.myspace.com/embracethekill
The Creeps – http://www.myspace.com/capitalcitycreeps
The Shitthieves – http://myspace.com/theshitthieves