When it comes to punk, Dillinger Four is it. Just look at some of the song titles on their debut album Midwestern Songs of the Americas called “#51 Dick Butkus” and “Supermodels Don’t Drink Colt .45” and “Honey, I Shit in the Hot Tub.” They’re punk and they know it. But they’re punk without trying, and that’s what makes them so different.
Their first full-length album first came out in 1998 on Hopeless Records, followed by three more over the next ten years. But what’s interesting about Patrick, Erik, Bill and Lane is how subliminally “off-the-radar” they’ve essentially been. Where have they been? It’s easy to think that when you play in such an influential punk band who’s greatly inspired bands like The Lawrence Arms that you’d keep the music alive, that you’d want to keep touring, and you’d want to play Warped Tour, instead of dodging it like a dreaded hangover. But with Dillinger Four, that punk life was never a priority, and neither was selling a ton of records. But regardless of not wanting to be in this crazy limelight or wanting to be rich, where have they been? What have they been doing?
Dillinger Four is still a band. They haven’t broken up. They’re just living their lives, working normal jobs, not doing interviews, and maybe making new music, or maybe not. But what isn’t a question mark when it comes to the vague whereabouts of this band is how engrained they are in the genre, and not just from that time that they were actively putting out music, but when it comes to punk-rock overall. It’s a brash, no-frills, dirty-sweat sound that D4 represents–no fuss, no fame, no unnecessary bullshit. And for Dillinger Four, that is something that will never change. (Now go listen to “Doublewhiskeycokenoice” and get crazy with ’em at Sunnyvale in Brooklyn.)
Sunnyvale
6/9
7 p.m.
$20
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