Pokeys Fest 4 Preview

This weekend, Pokeys Fest is here for a fourth time. The festival, put on by the local Iowa City hardcore tape label Pokeys Records, invites other hardcore and punk bands from across the Midwest and brings together basically every local act that has some sort of heaviness in their sound. Along with that, the festival also houses room for art dealers and vendors to sell their work. Pokeys will be sprawled across seven different venues across town this year over three days from June 12th-14th. Here’s a preview for all the shows that the bands will be playing.

Foxhead – Friday at 5:30 PM

The first set at Pokeys is the band Lit Fuse, gradually easing everyone into the festival with their indie sound not quite intense enough to be outright punk, but not lethargic and loose to be damned “slacker rock.” With them is M.A.T.B. (formerly Miranda and the Beat) coming from Brooklyn whose musical sound can stretch from DEVO styled post punk to the spirit of ‘60s beach rock, and local shoegazers Stelladrone filling the rare theater that is Foxhead Tavern.

“Stelladrone blends together shoegaze and dreampop. Heavy on the distortion, gentle riffs flow into layers on layers of texture, resulting in an energetic yet simultaneously relaxing end result. Stelladrone takes you out of the room and to somewhere else far away and beautiful.”
-Connor

Hell – Friday at 7:00 PM

In the even grander theater of Hell, Pokeys continues to ease into itself with local indie band Dead Level Set who switch in voice between their three members, and the Des Moines based Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops in their acid base garage rock sound that stings and seers in fast paced flux. They are joined by the New Orleans songwriter D. Sablu, whose band’s sound structure can break from its beatdown d-beat punk into some sort of weirdo stripped back and raw electro rock.

Purgatory – Friday at 8:30 PM

Go Vegan Or Die: That is the mantra of Hunting Accident. Akin to their genre tag grindcore, the band’s sound is like a mincer, excruciatingly fast, sharp, and unrelenting. The mosh pits they whip up are identical to that machine's function; other bodies are turned into blades as they shred up every human body that enters them and pulverizes them to dust. With them is local powerviolence band Recess, who are also just as fast and unrelenting, yet they make such ruthless brutality incredibly fun to be a part of. Lastly, is Springfield, Illinois’ Phantom Pike whose oi punk sound is shadowed under a gothic awning.

North Market Square Park – Saturday at 3:30 PM

North Market Square was last used as a venue at Pokeys Fest 2. It felt like a community block party outside in the middle of the day, people surrounding the wooden pavilion, and the older heads who’ve been in the scene for a long time bringing their kids to the show watching from the nearby playground. It was a good vibe. I don’t think they’re charging here if that’s an added incentive for you. Quickly established hardcore staples Chunks will be performing under the pavilion with self-described “shit head punk” band L.U.B.E. playing their first show ever. Along with those two is the Chicago d-beat band Asko. They played in Iowa City a couple of months ago, in a ferocious fit with barking riffs that sustained a fervent energy and had so many individual moments that kept you dancing on your toes. Definitely excited to hear them again.

Deadwood – Saturday at 6:00 PM

Savage Little Suckers played one of the most exciting and dynamic sets I’ve seen in a hot moment. The band is incredibly fast but still light and airy, where in the simple speed of ever flowing riffs it’s easy to lose yourself to dance in whatever loose motion. Savage Little Suckers also have two vocalists, interchanging lines between them and leaning out over their mic stands towards the audience right up front. Most of the songs were written in the ‘80s, and only just brought to life 40 years later; it’s genuine fun punk. Also, at Deadwood is Total Sham from Kansas City, who blend some outright d-beat styled hardcore with more bluesy and garage rock sounds and passages, and the local legends Bootcamp.

“An Iowa City hardcore punk scene staple, rapid and loud with riffs; Bootcamp is required listening for fans of DIY. Harsh, loud, and fast, Bootcamp brings a comforting familiarity to punk rockers. Brush up on your side-to-side skills before the show; you're not gonna wanna miss these guys.”
-Connor

Willow Creek Theater – Saturday at 8:30 PM

Submission is the newest band in Iowa City who have actually played a show so far. The one set they’ve played before was incredibly chaotic and finished before you were conscious of what happened. It was hard to parse what hit you in the face. The band Toxic Hell plays some darkened metal, while Chicago’s Flesh Commodity is straight forward hardcore making its message against techno consumerism known. Ripping itself apart, Traffic Death create thrash metal songs that tear themselves up into grindcore. They feel like they have a soon to be tapped potential energy about them. Now, here’s a certified unbiased review of Oral Fixx:

“D-beat will win. No but seriously, Oral Fixx plays nothing but raw and fast d-beat punk. They pride themselves on trying to be faster than the last set and strive to end as quickly as possible. Like seriously, don't even try to go outside for a quick smoke because the set will be done before you even light up that cigarette.”
-Mauricio

The James Theater – Sunday at 5:30 PM

Wait, there’s nine bands on this bill? Goddamn. The James Theater is hosting everything on Sunday night from strange electronic to thrash metal to pop punk to probably even more. In that first category is local Birdlabs who refines that weirdo electronic spirit and infuses it into his music, semi-local True Commando who makes jungle from hell and traverses it in stripped down army surplus, and non-local Cincinnati based Decide Today who transmits anarcho-punk sentiments in heavy breakcore, hardcore, industrial music that jams in and out like it’s from a pirate radio station. In those other categories, Starved have tattering thrash metal and Lipstick Homicide play a style of pop punk mixed in with plenty of queercore and riot grrrl influences.

For everything else at The James, it’s hardcore throughout. Blaster carry the vibe of several different punk subscenes, yet all those different pieces lock into place flush and effortlessly in always vivacious sets. Philadelphia’s Real Shocks are stripped back and raw to the bare DIY punk essentials. Ascended Master can feel mysterious up on stage but frequently erupt and make themselves known when they need to. Power of Dusk is pure hardcore from Champaign, Illinois, capturing the central sound and essence that Pokeys Fest has to offer.

There’s too much to offer to miss out on all of Pokeys Fest. Catch a couple shows. See some bands. Meet and talk to some new people. That’s what it’s all about, just this time ballooned to an even grander scale. It’s what we have in order to ground a world that doesn’t make any ethical sense anymore and ensure a 2087 exists.

That means get excited for Pokeys Fest 65. In the mean time, you can get tickets for Pokeys Fest 4 here.