ST. VALENTINE RIOT
NO USE FOR A NAME, Crowfish, A-Moral, Empty Face, La Muchedumbre, Perfect Skies, Rise Above

14.02.2009 '4km Party Centre', Sofia, Bulgaria

Words by: Nikki The Stripper, photo: Dee Dee

Some people spend St. Valentine's in a fancy restaurant, eating dinner, amidst candles. Others spend it naked in bed, with candles also...dripping hot wax on their skin. And then there are those who like the drip drip of beer or vodka whilst going loopy to live ska and lunk music. A few hundred of the latter descended upon the 4km Party Center in Sofia on Saturday night.

St. Valentine Riot was more of a fest than a regular gig, with six Bulgarian bands and the headliners from San Jose - the legendary No Use For A Name. All in all, five hours of quality, high-energy music and for a mere 20 BG quid.

Rise Above kicked off proceedings with a blast only to be followed by the even more ferocious Perfect Skies. Next up were La Muchedumbre. They are one of the more interesting new bands on the local scene, with a good stage presence and a cool mixture of ska, punk and swing. They've been playing the capital for a while now, so check them out if you get a chance, you won't be disappointed. The good thing about this type of gig is that the atmosphere as a whole is always very positive, there's a lot of energy, but no mindless idiotic aggression.

This applied fully to Empty Face's blistering 20-minute set which really warmed up the crowd. Varna's A-Moral raided the stage next with a vengeance and it's safe to say that some of their songs are already underground classics with at least two of them fit to be Bulgaria's unnoficial anthem. They really got the crowd going and were a very tough act to follow, but Crowfish (also hailing from the seaside town of Varna) did a pretty good job with that. They've been touring Europe for a number of years now and will be doing so again this April. Their songs aren't as aggressive as A-Moral's, opting instead for a more melodic approach. Which brings us nicely to the headliners, who hit the stage shortly after 9:30 p.m.

After nearly 22 years existence, eight studio albums and countless tours, San Jose's legendary punk rock outfit No Use For A Name finally arrived in Bulgaria's capital city. The band launched into "Justified Black Eye" off their classic LECHE CON CARNE (1995) album. The crowd went loco, stagediving ensued, sweat and happiness all around, true love on St. Valentine's man!

One of the local boys won the stagediver mentalist of the night award hands down. No Use For A Name played a healthy mixture of newer stuff and the classics - not only did we get 18 songs at first blast, but also 4 more as an encore. Not a dry eye or armpit in the house. Now pass the hot wax!