For the second year in a row, the cool cats at Astro Lizard Records and Freak Style Booking drew the masses to their Midnight Mass fest in the heart of downtown Long Beach. This year’s all-ages event took place at The Packard – a big ol’ empty artist space that was prime for a full day of partying and amp’d up noise.
Cool-Tite was scheduled to spin wax for some of the event, so we rolled down to the LBC early and were able to catch Penniback Records‘ own meow-core outfit, Clit Kat, on the outdoor stage. The Pabst was flowing, and the pit was stirring! We quickly caught on to the well-scheduled back and forth between the indoor and outdoor stage, so as soon as Clit Kat’s songs of sucking and fucking ceased, we were right on over to the volatile high energy of Pity Party on the indoor stage.
We spun some records as the space started to get busy. The show had been “almost” sold out for at least a week prior to the event, and it was during Prettiest Eyes‘ set that you could really feel the place filling up! And then, outta nowhere, we spotted a dude wearing just a banana hammock and all thought, “Damn, that’s bold!” Turns out, he was just headed to the outdoor state to destroy with his band Cumstain.
The Memories brought some much needed mellow after a series of high-energy acts. Rikky, Izak, new member Colleen Green, and the rest of the dudes got the whole place swaying and looking for the sweet leaf.
Peach Kelli Pop really stole the show for me. With their flying V’s in hand, PKP started strong with a Misfits cover and worked their way to one of my fave new jams of theirs, “Hundred Dollar Bill.” Feels are just so good. Every time. Their debut record is a best of 2016, for sure, and their songs are even better live.
At this time, we’d like to pause and give a major shout out, “hell yeah,” and thank you to Spaghetti Girl. She graciously shared her mom’s spaghet with us starving souls as we stood in the crowd prepared to take off with Walter. Walter, another band with a stellar debut record (on Mock Records), played all the faves. Later, Audacity reminded us how many great OC punk anthems they have up their sleeves.
By the time the true degenerates, The Spits, took the stage, the midnight mass was at capacity and beer was low, but energy was still way high as kids flew from every which direction under the venue’s classy, almost out of place, chandeliers!
Overall, Midnight Mass 2 was a huge success! Thanks to Jarrett, Brent, and Droozie for including us in the good times and creating such a cool space for an all-ages crowd.
Photos by Sergio Estrada