After two independent albums, the Chicago natives garnered nationwide attention with the third and fourth releases, “Knuckles Up” (2004) and “Jungle of the Midwest Sea” (2007), both from Flicker Records. The band gained steam early with the help of its regional notoriety.
Furthering that success, Flatfoot 56′s fifth release, “Black Thorn” (2010), landed the quintet on a total of nine Billboard charts. The band also received song placements in the FX series “Sons of Anarchy” and the video game “Watchdogs.”
In 2022, the band released its first split EP, aptly titled “Split,” with Celtic punks the Rumjacks out of Sydney, Australia. Flatfoot 56 has seven EPs and seven studio albums — it’s in the process of recording an eighth.
Ricky Terrell, the bassist from All Hallowed, said he’s known Tobin Bawinkel, the lead singer of Flatfoot 56, from sharing bills over the years. Flatfoot 56 had a day off and decided to play Dayton on the band’s drive back to Chicago from its tour of the East Coast.
During quarantine, All Hallowed was formed as a two-piece dance-punk, new wave band by husband and wife Ricky and Lacey Terrell — both founding members of folk band Starving in the Belly of the Whale. In 2021, All Hallowed released two EP cassettes, “All Hallowed” and “TWO,” on Friend Club Records with the help of post-hardcore band Underoath’s Aaron Gillespie on drums.
The band added a third member, drummer Chris Cox, and recorded its debut full-length, “Give Me Mercy” (2022), produced by Micah Carli of Hawthorne Heights and released on Poptek Records. The album featured Nick Thompson (Hit the Lights) and Vinnie Caruana (I Am the Avalanche) as guest vocalists.
All Hallowed is a dark punk band, as witnessed by its unwavering gloomy aesthetics. But perhaps the most unusual aspect of the band is that Ricky’s bass is the driving force behind it, forgoing the reliance on six-stringed instruments typical of the genre. It’s just drums, vocals (by Lacey), a bass and some pedals, played simultaneously through bass and guitar amps.
There have been bass-forward bands (see: Primus, Presidents of the United States of America, et al.), but All Hallowed feels different (perhaps because Primus is Ricky’s least favorite band, and Presidents is hardly trailing).
When the Terrells were in Starving in the Belly, they only used cello, theremin and an acoustic guitar. In All Hallowed, every song is written in A minor and is under two minutes and 30 seconds, the branding is black-and-white, and there are drums, bass and vocals.
These self-imposed limitations are standard practice.
Ricky said the band’s dance-punk label was placed retroactively by listeners, and that maybe the upbeat, repetitive basslines and choruses made them want to dance.
Viceroy Kings introduces a third punk subgenre to the mix: cowpunk.
Cowpunk, as the bovid name suggests, blends punk with country, speaking directly to the fuming working person and all the sorrows — and drinking — often involved. Viceroy Kings is equally enraged and jolly, as evidenced by the gruff, excitable vocals and major chord-heavy guitar tones.
But the band has as much in common with early rock & roll (see: the band’s 2019 cover of “Run Rudolph Run”) as it does with country and punk.
Viceroy Kings released its first full-length record, “Drunken Alibis,” in 2022, following it up with a 3-song EP, “Cars, Bars & Weirdos,” earlier this year. The band also released a single in April, with a title that cannot be tactfully typed here.
Three great bands, three different sounds, all derived from the same place — a punk variety show.
How to go
What: Flatfoot 56 with guests All Hallowed and Viceroy Kings
When: 7 p.m. July 6
Where: The Hidden Gem, 507 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, Centerville
Cost: Tickets are $15 advance, $20 at the door
More: All ages are welcome
Tell us about your band
Have a band that performs locally? Tell us about it. Email Local Music Scene writer brandonthomasberry@gmail.com.
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